■f 






THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 



HISTORY OF COMMON SCHOOL/ EDUCATION IN NEW YORK FROM 1633 TO 1904 



BY CHARL.ES E. FITCH 



Prepared under the direction of Charles R. Skinner, Superintendent of Public Instruction 



J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 
ALBANY, NEW YORK 
D367111-N4-1000 



EDUCATIONAL HISTORY 



A History of the common school in New York 

B Biographical sketches of superintendents of public 
instruction 



MAY 24 i905 
i). ot 0. 



A History of the common school in New York 



Prepared by Charles E. Fitc« under the direction of the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction 

It is fifty years since the Department of Public 
Instruction was instituted. A review of its adminis- 
tration during that period is pertinent at its close as 
is also reference to what was done for education in 
New York previously thereto. 

In the development of popular education in the ™* ^'V 
United States, New York is entitled to primacy in two New York 
respects — the genesis of the common school system and 
supervision of the same by the state. That system has 
been defined and promoted by various commonwealths 
and aided by grants from the federal government, until 
there are throughout the union schools free to all, con- 
serving a patriotic citizenship and assuring an en- 
lightened nation, but it is from New York that the chief 
leadings, those of public provision for their maintenance 
and central authority for their conduct have proceeded. 
The first public school in the country was that which J*,f J^ st 
was begun in New Amsterdam in 1G33 with Adam 
Roelandson as its master. Precedence in this regard 
must be accorded to the Dutch colony of New Nether- 
land. Other colonies followed, if they were not stimu- 
lated by, its example. There can be no dispute as to 
the chronological order. It is said but not shown that New Eng. 
a school existed in the town of Plymouth in 1633, and schools 
one in Marshfield in 1615. In 1G73, fifty-three years 
after Plymouth Rock was sighted, the court ordered the 
setting up of a sehool to be supported by the revenue 
from the Cape fishery. Boston, in Massachusetts Bay, 
in 1C35, " at a general meeting upon public notice " 
voted "that our brother, Philemon Pormont shall be 
entreated to become schoolmaster for the teaching and 
nurturing children with us," but there is no evidence 
that the request was acceded to. The next year " at a 
general meeting of the richer inhabitants, there was 
given towards the maintenance of a free schoolmaster 
for the youth with us, Mr Daniel Maud being now also 
chosen thereunto." In 1611 it was ordered that Deare 
Island should be occupied for the keeping of a free 
school (so called) for the town. In 1643, Dedham set 
apa^*t sixty acres for the use of the church and a free 



Department of Public Instruction 

school. In 1643 Roxbury allowed £20 a year for the 
support of a schoolmaster, to be raised out of property 
bestowed by certain of its inhabitants, and a little later 
Charlestown, Cambridge, Dorchester, Ipswich and 
Salem made similar arrangements. In 1642, the Gen- 
eral Court ordered that children should be brought up 
to learning and labor, imposing fines upon parents and 
others who neglected their duty in these particulars, 
and on November 11, 1647, it passed the celebrated 
statute, which is sometimes assumed to be the precursor 
of all school legislation in the land and, with preamble, 
quaint and fantastic now, but sincere and serious then, 
revealing the theocratic inclination of its framers, 
decreed that in order to thwart the designs of " that 
old deluder Satan," " every township in this jurisdic- 
tion after the Lord hath increased them to the number 
of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one 
within their town to teach all such children as shall 
resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be 
paid either by the parents or masters of such children, 
or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as 
the major part of those that order the prudentials of 
the town shall appoint." Connecticut, with settlement 
beginning in 1634, soon thereafter gave attention to 
educational matters; Hartford, in 1642, appropriating 
£50 annually for a school, in which the tuition fees 
were 20 shillings a year, the children of parents unable 
to pay being instructed at town charge; and, in the 
code of laws adopted in 1650, the Massachusetts ordi- 
nance of 1647 was incorporated verbatim and made 
imperative upon all the towns. New Haven, shortly 
after its settlement, in 1637, enjoined the deputies in 
each plantation to see that all parents and masters, 
either by their own ability and labor, or by employing 
such schoolmasters and other agencies as the plantation 
might afford, should have their children and appren- 
tices taught to read the scriptures and other books in 
the English tongue, and those who failed in their duty 
were to be fined, and, if they continued contumacious, 
their charges were to be placed in the hands of those 
who would better educate and govern them. The town 
of New Haven, in 1642, ordered that a free school be 
set up and a schoolmaster, Ezekiel Cheever, was 
presently hired at £20 a year, his salary being subse- 
quently increased to £30, and in 1657 the General Court 
ordained that every plantation should provide a school- 



A rbtikw or r-rs administration 3 

master, one-third of hi* salary to be paid by the town 
and two-thirds by the parents or guardians of the pupils. 
The territory of Connecticut was enlarged in 1665 by 
the absorption of New Haven, and various school laws 
were matured, that of 1G78 requiring that towns of 
thirty families should keep a school " to teach children 
to read and write " being the most precise in its man- 
dates. Other colonies laid the foundations of their 
common school systems respectively as follows: Rhode ^""Jjjt 1 
Island in 1640; New Hampshire in 1649; Delaware in tions gen- 
1657; Pennsylvania in 1683; Maryland in 1694; Vir erally 
ginia in 1752. 

These dates determine the precedence of New Nether- 
land in planting the elementary school in American soil. 
She was the pioneer. Nor was this merely the accident 
of primordial settlement. In the evolution of the 
republican state, the Dutch anticipated their neighbors 
in appreciating responsibility for the education of the 
young and in designing the measures necessary to that so™of "~ 
end. The Pilgrims, notwithstanding their sojourn in I? nt ?" a,ld 

° » J Puritan 

Holland and the inspiration there extended, made, as inspiration 
has been seen, long delay. The Puritans came to the 
Atlantic coast in considerable numbers in 162S, and the 
great migration occurred in 1630. Among the laymen 
there were those of high intellectual endowments; many 
were of comfortable estate; some possessed large 
wealth ; while the clerical element, paramount in 
influence, was specially able and liberally educated. 
Within twelve years from the landing at Salem, there 
were eighty ministers in Massachusetts who had been 
ordained in the church of England and who were nearly 
all graduates from Cambridge university. The Puri- 
tans were a compact and homogeneous body, well 
equipped and well organized, with a definite object in 
view. That object was to found a Christian state in 
the new world — " to raise a bulwark against anti- 
Christ " as John White, the chief promoter of the enter- 
prise, declared. To this all their thoughts were directed * 
and all their energies were devoted. They brought 
with them English ideas, customs and institutions, 
among which was not the common school. That was 
the creation of succeeding years. The people in Eng- 
land knew nothing of the common school and the 
English people who came to America did not bring it 
with them. The charter, wrested from the king, with 
its distinct enunciation of corporate rights and privi 



1 Department of Public Enstruction 

leges, construed by its grantees as adequate for the 
government they fashioned, embraced no educational 
warrant. 

Although Henry Hudson ascended the river, which 
bears his name, in 1609, it was not until twenty years 
The settle- later that the real settlement of New Netherland began. 
New ivetn- New York owes her being, not to lofty religious senti- 
ment, as does New England, nor to passion for stirring- 
adventure, as does Virginia, but to Dutch genius for 
trade. But growth was, at the first, slow. In 1G29 the 
inhabitants consisted only of the little company of 
Walloons, who had come over in 1G24 and tbe servants 
of the West India company, grouped at trading posts 
from Manhattan io Beverwyck (Albany), who were 
wholly engrossed in exchanging baubles and trinkets 
for furs with the Indians and returning inordinate 
profits to their employers therefrom. There were in the 
territory three or four small forts, but there were no 
mechanical industries, no tilling of the earth except 
for the bare necessities of the scanty population, and 
but feeble attempts at the making of homes. The com- 
pany had, in 1621, been granted a monopoly of tra le 
on the coasts of Africa and America and invested with 
almost sovereign powers by the States General of the 
United Netherlands, the latter retaining some control 
by commissioning the governors and demanding reports 
from them, but experience had shown that no benefits 
accrued to the plantation beyond those from the com- 
merce in peltries and that the interests of the company 
would l»e enhanced, as it was also (dear that the 
resources of the company could be utilized, only by 
stimulating colonization. With the larger outlook, 
charter of came the charter of freedoms and exemptions issued by 
amiVv-"* the company June 7. 102!), to all such as should colonize 
emptions^ ^ eyy Netherland. This instrument was singularly 
inconsistent in its articles. While it asserted the 
liberties of the individual and guaranteed him certain 
notable immunities of person and property, its conces 
sions of immense manors confirmed feudal tenures 
and customs, exalted caste, magnified proprietary fran- 
chises and grievously vexed colonial and even state 
administration far into the nineteenth century. Its 
invitation to immigration, however, was a broad one, 
becoming more generous in 163S, when each settler was 
promised as much land as he could cultivate, was 
granted practically free trade with the mother country, 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION » 

and equal justice was pledged to all inhabitants and 
visitors, in civil and criminal proceedings. Under 
these benign behests, the earth yielded its harvests, 
thrift followed frugality, communities expanded and 
law reigned. 

But the distinguishing and now illustrious feature of 
the charter of 1629 was the prescription concerning 
education. It was that " the patrons and colonists £**ai d prel 
shall in particular, and in the speediest manner, scription 
endeavor to find out ways and means whereby they may 
support a minister and schoolmaster that thus the 
service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool 
and be neglected among them, and they shall, for the 
first procure a comforter of the sick there." 

This was the first educational edict in America. 1 1 
was reaffirmed substantially in the " New Project of 
Freedoms and Exemptions " in 1630, and in 1638 it was 
made obligatory that " each householder and inhabi- 
tant shall bear such tax and public charge.as shall here- 
after be considered proper for the maintenance of 
clergymen, comforters for the sick and like necessary 
officers and the director and council there (New Nether- 
land) shall be written to touching the form hereof, in 
order on receiving further information hereupon, it be 
rendered the least onerous and vexatious ;" and, in 1640, 
the company assumed formally certain responsibilities 
which, indeed, it had already generously borne, in these 
"words: "And no other religion shall be publicly admit- 
ted in New Netherland, except the Reformed, as at pres- 
ent preached and practiced by public authority in the 
United Netherlands, and for this purpose the company 
shall promote and maintain good and suitable 
preachers, schoolmasters and comforters of the sick." 
Spiritual instruction was, of course, dictated, as was 
the rule in all Protestant lands, and the divorce of 
church and state was yet remote, but in these several 
rescripts, the means by which the cost of the common 
school was defrayed, for more than two centuries, were 
indicated. Thev were public largess, general taxation, Early 

, , , , '. , . „ , , , . , methods 

and ratable tuition fees, and upon this scheme, no of support- 
essential improvement was made, until the free school, Jj , o s n ednca- 
in its integrity, was willed by the people. It is not 
contended that these agencies were operative concur- 
rently and continuously for the whole period, nor that 
there were not lapses in their application at certain 
I imes and places, but, in larger or lesser measure, either 



Department of Public Instruction 



The Dutch 
school :i 
public 
school 



Definition 

of tlie conL 

rami school suffice 

system 



separately or jointly, they obtained throughout, and the 
credit of founding the public school in America must 
be conceded to the Dutch and particularly to the policy 
of the Dutch West India company, itself derived from 
the methods which had long prevailed in Holland and 
made it the most thoroughly educated nation in Europe. 
Henri Taine says : " In culture and instruction, as well 
as in the arts of organization and government, the 
Dutch are two centuries ahead of the rest of Europe;" 
and if this is true now, it certainly was then. It is sug- 
gested that the early Dutch school in New Netherland 
was not a public school, in the American acceptation, 
as not conforming to the definition of such " as estab- 
lished, supported and controlled by the people acting in 
their political capacity as a civil body politic.'' This 
definition formulated to fit a case in a controversy as 
to primacy is narrow and misleading. The inquiry 
does not depend so much upon the manner in which 
the American school had being as upon what manner 
of school it was — not whether it was appointed by the 
public but whether it was conducted for the public. 
The question is not as to whether New York, under 
the West India company and the States General, had 
less or more of popular government than Massachusetts, 
under the theocracy and its articles of incorporation. 
It is as to which served the cause of popular education 
the sooner and the better. Magna Charta is an in- 
delible sign manual of human freedom, even if it was 
forced from the sovereign by feudal barons, with their 
hands on their swords, and was not of parliamentary 
persuasion. Although the schools of Prussia were of 
autocratic dispensation, they are free in fullest mean 
: ng and broadest view. The narrow definition does nol 
An accurate statement of what the common 
school system is has been framed by President Andrew 
S. Draper. It is a system of "schools for the common 
welfare and the public security, supported by public 
moneys, managed by public officers, in which all the 
people have common rights and which are free from 
whatever may offend conscience or abridge those 
rights;" and, as the Educational Review says, "the 
germ of this system is to be found in the schools estab- 
lished by the early Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam." 
Inasmuch as two clergymen of the Reformed church, 
Sebastian Crol and John Huyck, ministered in 1626 
in New Amsterdam, when it numbered barely one hun 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION i 

died souls and as, in the infant Dutch communities, ^^"'h. 
the parson and the pedagogue might be one and the ™£°°J~ 
same, it is a fair inference that either or both of these 
instructed the young and that the keeping of school 
began in the year mentioned, an inference which is 
strengthened by the fact that the colonial estimate for 
1625 included the salary of a schoolmaster at 360 florins, 
but no record to that effect, remains. The Dutchman 
was not so diligent a chronicler as the Puritan who 
tallied every step he took and wrote history as he made 
it. The educational data of New Netherland are sadly 
deficient. The opening, however, of the school by Roe- 
landson, in 1633, is amply authenticated and it has a 
long and honorable history. The succession of its trus- 
tees and teachers has been preserved. With occasional 
interruptions, it was continued as a public school dur- 
ing the Dutch ascendancy, ceased as such with the 
English occupancy, in 1664, being thereafter sustained 
by the consistory of the Reformed church, under the 
direct supervision of its deacons, was discontinued dur- 
ing the revolutionary war, was reorganized in 1783 and 
is still in existence as the school of the Collegiate Re- 
formed church in the city of New York. 

In 1652, New Amsterdam obtained a municipal char- ^I^er 1 * 001 * 
ter and a second school was inaugurated. The city was Dutch rule 
to manage its own finances and was directed to pay 
all official salaries, including those of the schoolmasters, 
but it neglected to do so and, two years later, the 
colonial government resumed the collection of taxes 
and their disbursement. As towns were erected on 
Long Island and the Hudson, it was the uniform prac- 
tice to reserve lots for school sites, and houses were 
built thereon. Thus there were public schools at Flat- 
bush, Newtown, Hempstead, Southampton, Brooklyn, 
Esopus, Albany and other places, and licenses for pri- 
vate schools were freely issued. For the last eighteen 
years of Dutch rule, Petrus Stuyvesant was director- 
general, and that doughty w r arrior and stern execu- 
tive seems to have been deeply impressed with the im- 
portance of the common school as related to the weal 
of the state. His deliverances in its behalf were not 
infrequent. In his proclamation of September 22, 1647, 
proposing the appointment of nine men as tribunes or 
advisors to himself and his council from a list of eight- 
een nominated to him by the inhabitants, he stated his 
reasons therefor, as follows : "Whereas, we desire noth- 



Department op Public Instri 



The 

natnral 
order of 
scliool 
establish- 
ment 



ing more than that the government of New Nethcrbnd, 
entrusted to our care, and principally New Amster- 
dam, our capital and residence, might continue and in- 
crease in good order, justice, police, population, pros- 
perity and mutual harmony, and be provided with 
strong fortifications, a church, a school, trading place, 
harbor and similar highly necessary public edifices and 
improvements, for which end we are desirous of obtain- 
ing the assistance of our whole commonalty, as nothing 
is better adapted to promote their own welfare and com- 
fort, and as such as is required in every well regulated 
government." He wrote earnestly to the classis of Am- 
sterdam "for a pious, well qualified and diligent school- 
master" for "nothing" he adds "is of greater importance 
than the right, early instruction of youth." In November 
of the same year, he announced to the nine men that the 
company could contribute a portion of the sum needed 
for educational purposes and that it would continue 
such aid regularly "to promote the glorious work" prom- 
ising also that a schoolroom and a dwelling for the 
master should be supplied during the ensuing winter. 
In 1658, he welcomed Alexander Carolus Curtius and 
informed the company of his arrival. "We hope and 
confide" he said, "that the company shall reap gnat 
benefits from it for their children, for which we pray 
that a bountiful God may vouchsafe his blessing." Rec- 
tor Curtius came as the principal of a Latin, or gram- 
mer school, which the company provided. 

The Dutch observed the natural order in their educa- 
tional economy. They attended first to the elementary 
and next to the secondary department. The latter, they 
held, was the sequence of the former. They did not 
plan the college, because of lack of means and possibly 
because they thought that individual incentive and 
patronage would suffice for it when it should be 
demanded. Indeed. New York, as a state, has been 
quite consistent in its adherence to the voluntary prin- 
ciple in higher education. Aside from a few gifts in 
the earlier stages of its development, now wholly dis- 
continued and for denominational institutions consti- 
tutionally inhibited and certain recent provision for 
courses in practical industries, the state has, while exer- 
cising a mild supervision over its colleges and profes- 
sional schools refused pecuniary assistance to them. 
The amount heretofore donated, exclusive of $305,000 
derived from lotteries, is less than $450,000, the last 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 

appropriation — $25,000 — being to the Elmira female 
college in 18G7. The chief concern of the state is for 
the common school. Both the Puritan and the Cava- 
lier reversed the natural order. The primal educational 
enactment in Massachusetts was an appropriation of 
£000 to Harvard college, for which, as fitting students 
for the ministry, the theocracy always evinced the 
liveliest solicitude; and, in Virginia, the charter of Wil- 
liam and Mary antedated, by over sixty years, any legis- 
lation for institutions of a lower grade. Throughout his 
administration, Stuyvesant continued to manifest an 
interest in education, and, at its close, public schools 
existed in nearly every town and village, imparting in- 
struction in Latin, Greek, mathematics, reading and 
writing — drill in the catechism not being omitted— 
through the medium of the Dutch vernacular and, 
toward the end, through the English tongue also. 

Under the rule of the English, the common school J t !' b e ools 
languished in New York, such of its life as lingered H£ d ^ . 
being mainly referable to the insistence of certain Dutch rule 
communities upon its sustenance by taxation; and, it 
is noteworthy that, during the brief Dutch reoccupa- 
tion, care was again bestowed upon it by the provincial 
authorities. In December, 1073, it was ordered by Gov- 
ernor-General Colve and the council that all the inhabi- 
tants of the town of Bergen, which was then within 
their jurisdiction, should pay their share for the sup- 
port of the precentor and schoolmaster, and, in May, 
1074, it was further ordered that the sheriff proceed to 
immediate execution against all persons who still 
declined to pay. As Daniel J. Pratt says in his An- 
nals of Public Education, " the foregoing action on the 
part of the governor and council seems to have fully 
settled and confirmed the policy of the Dutch admin- 
istration in regard to free public schools supported 
solely by taxation, and w T hich, but for the reconquest by 
the English, might, perhaps, have continued without 
interruption to this day." 

It is not to be inferred, as has already been intimated 
that elementary education perished utterly under 
English rule. In 1(105, Governor Nicolls licensed one 
John Schutte "for the teaching of the English tongue" 
at Albany, upon the ground that such teaching was 
necessary to the government, and upon the condition 
that he should "not demand any more wages from each 
scholar than is given by the Dutch to their Dutch school- 



10 Department ok Public Instruction 

master." It is not a violent assumption that defi- 
ciencies in his compensation were to be made up in 
the Dutch manner. In 1671, Governor Lovelace 
directed the justices of the peace, constables and over- 
seers of the town of Hempstead to cause speedy pay- 
ment to be made to Richard Charlton of the arrears 
of his salary as schoolmaster, according to the terms 
of the contract made with him by the town. In 1691, 
immediately succeeding the so-called Leisler rebellion, 
Richard Ingoldesby, commander-in-chief of the province 
of New York and the honorable council ordered that Jorst 
de Baane, the schoolmaster of New Utrecht, should re- 
ceive the salary duehim as such, and that no other school- 
master should officiate in the town without a license from 
the government. This order was in compliance with a 
petition of the resident justice of the peace and the min- 
ister setting forth that because De Baane had refused 
to side with the rebellion, certain ill-affected persons 
had compelled him "to forsake the place, although the 
land, out of which the schoolmaster and reader of the 
town is maintained, was given to the town by the said 
justice, out of his proper estate." The school, started 
in Flatbush in 1659, was continued until 1802, when it 
was absorbed in the academy. The list of its teachers 
has been preserved, as also have the articles of agree- 
ment of the town with two of these — Jan Tibout, in 
1681, and Johannes Van Ekkelen, in 16S2 — from which 
it appears that each was to receive a salary of 400 
guilders, in addition to tuition fees, and perquisites for 
bell-tolling, the delivery of funeral invitations and other 
functions vested in his office. The schools that were 
licensed by the early English governors, especially by 
Lord Cornbury, may be regarded fairly as public ones. 
Among these were the license to Thomas Huddleston, 
on the 5th of December, 1705, "to teach the English 
language, writing and arithmetic, in the town of 
Jamaica, Queens county" and that to Thomas Jeffrey, 
on the 17th of April, 1706, " to keep and teach school 
within the city of New York and to instruct all children 
with whom you shall be intrusted in the art of reading 
and arithmetic for and during my (Oornbury's) pleas- 
ure;" and, in July, 1712, authority was given by Gover- 
nor Hunter to Allane Jarratt "to teach writing, arith- 
metic and navigation and other parts of the mathe- 
matics to all such persons as shall be desirous to be 
Instructed therein within the oity or province of New 
York." 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 11 

Any account of education in New York would be™* y s £; r 
singularly incomplete which did not, at least, allude the Propa- 
to the service rendered it by the Society for the Pro pa- tiie Gospel 
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. It was and part» re sn 

still is a missionary body of the church of England. 
Organized in 1701, its object, as stated, in 1730, by its 
secretary, the Rev. David Humphreys, D. D., was 
two-fold, to wit, "to unite the growing generation in 
their language, as well as in their religious principles." 
The school was to do battle for the supremacy of En- 
glish speech and the ecclesiastical order. The society 
bestowed annual stipends upon its schoolmasters, 
ranging from £10 to £40, the first school being located 
at Rye in 1704. Between that year and 1775 it em- 
ployed about 60 teachers, schools being maintained in 
the counties of Albany, Suffolk, New York, Richmond 
and Westchester. The pupils were mainly the children 
of poor parents and included quite a proportion of 
slaves and some Indians. In addition to supplying 
teachers, the society offered in 1728 to found a library 
in New York city, provided the books it donated should 
be cared for properly. Governor Montgomery laid the 
proposition before the assembly, which promptly ac- 
cepted it, with a vote of thanks, and assurance that a 
bill should be passed for the preservation of the volumes 
when they should arrive. They came, but the assem- 
bly failed to redeem its promise and no further action 
in the premises was had. The society did excellent ser- 
vice, which it is proper to recognize even at this distant 
day and to admit the claim that, with its ministrations, 
it has rightful place in the common school succession. 
Under English rule, the work of the society was con- 
scientiously prosecuted; certain Dutch schools, with 
the auspices and conditions indicated, remained in 
being and licenses were granted to English schools. It 
is significant that upon a map of the city of New York, 
made from an actual survey by T. Maerochalcken, in 
17(33, both the Dutch and English free schools are 
designated. 

While, therefore, it is true that, with the latitude ^StSi 
of interpretation as to its quality, which has been sug- ■«* chari- 
gested, the common school did not become entirely ex- effort 
tinct, during the century that intervened between the 
surrender by the Dutch and the evacuation by British 
troops, it is true that it came near to dissolution. 
Whatever vitality inhered in it was due either to in- 



12 



Department of Public Instruction 



Develop- 
ment in 
New Eng- 
land and 
New York 
compared 



apiration purely local or to organized charitable effort. 
If two or three of the earlier royal governors exhibited 
some interest in it, their successors betrayed none. It 
was without system or supervision, sporadic instead of 
general, and lacked conspicuously governmental sanc- 
tion. Instances, however, occurred in which provincial 
legislatures, Dutch in their majorities, strove strenu- 
ously but ineffectually for its promotion as against the 
prerogative of the executive ; a bill was proposed in the 
assembly of 1G91 " to appoint a schoolmaster for the 
educating and instructing of children and youth to 
read and write English, in every town in the province," 
which came to naught. A paragraph in a letter of 
President Johnson of Kings college, to Archbishop 
Se; kei\ in April 1702. is worth quoting. Eeferring to 
the illiberality of the New York colonial authorities 
concerning educational grants he says: " It is a great 
pity when patents are granted, as they often are. for 
large tracts of land, no provision is made for religion 
or schools. I wish therefore, instructions were given to 
our governors never to grant patents for townships, or 
villages, or large manors, without obliging the patentees 
to sequester a competent portion for the subject of reli- 
gion and education." The wish of the good president 
was not realized. The English had no elementary school 
system in England, and their government had no obj< I 
in constructing one here. The English aristocracy, 
transplanted to and perpetuated in New York, was at 
one with royal authority in refusing to favor — indeed, in 
opposing actively — popular education. In its esteem, 
education was for the classes, not for the masses. For 
its rising generations, were fireside homilies, private 
tutelage and the training schools and universities of 
England and, from the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, the colonial granimer school and college. 

It is. at this time, in the comparison, that New 
England becomes the superior of New York in the 
development of the common school. The Puritans were 
unlike the English who directed the course of the royal 
government in New York. They were of the same 
stamp as the men of Naseby and the Long Parliament. 
They were independent and democratic. If they were 
somewhat slow in breaking away from English preced- 
ent and thus failed in the initiative which the Dutch 
assumed, their pioneer conditions induced them to the 
departure, as they also led them to separate from the 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 13 

church of England and to prescribe the Congregational 
communion. If they first set up the college and the 
secondary school, they later started the elementary 
school as the sentiment of the people asserted itself, 
and the common school once sanctioned was not per- 
mitted to decay; it was resolutely and consistently 
maintained. 

Three acts comprehend all that the colonial legis ^g'sfative 
lature of New York did for education from 1664 to acts of a 

century 

1775; none of these related to the elementary school; 
two were in behalf of the grammar, or high school, and 
one was the appropriation to Kings college of certain 
moneys derived from public lottery and the excise reve- 
nue. On the 27th of November, 1702, an act for the 
encouragement of a grammar free school was passed 
and approved by the governor and council. It provided 
for the appointment by the governor, on the recom- 
mendation of the common council of the city, of a 
schoolmaster who should instruct the male children of 
French, Dutch and English parents in the English, 
Latin and Greek tongues, and also in the arts of reading 
and writing and that he should be paid the sum of £50 
annually to be raised by taxation for a term of seven 
years. Under it, Mr. George Morrison, who seems to 
have been fairly successful in his calling, was commis- 
sioned and the school expired by limitation of the term. 
It was not until 1732 that the legislature took further 
action concerning secondary education. On the 14th of 
October in that year it passed "an act to encourage a 
public school in the city of New York for teaching 
Latin, Greek and mathematics," which was assented to 
by the governor and was, in several respects, an admir- 
able measure. It appointed, as master, Alexander Mal- 
colm, who had already afforded commendable proof of 
his abilities as a private preceptor, at an annual salary 
of £40 for a term of seven years, to be paid from the 
fund accruing from licenses issued to hawkers and ped- 
dlers and it distributed free scholarships to twenty 
youths from the various counties, to be named by the 
respective authorities of each in the following propor- 
tions : to New York ten, to Albany two, and to 
Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Richmond, Orange, Ulster and 
Dutchess each one. The school was in operation eight 
years, when it was discontinued, and, thereafter, sec- 
ondary education, throughout the province, depended 
upon individual benefaction and patronage. The two 



14 



Department of Public Instruction 



Snmmary 
prior to 
the state- 
hood of 
New York 



First 
attention 
to higher 
education 



The Re- 
gents of 
the Uni- 
versity 



acts have been cited, as the revelation, among other 
things, that for a time, at least, the law-making body 
regarded the high school as a public charge, setting an 
example, which modern legislation has largely followed ; 
and the grammar school could not have been considered, 
as it was in some of the colonies, a mere tender of the 
college, because it was more than twenty years after 
the second law was enacted that the college was char- 
tered. 

The review of education in New York, prior to the 
revolutionary war. is necessarily fragmentary and im- 
perfect, if not baffling, owing to the scantiness of the 
records, but from them the primacy of the Dutch in in- 
augurating the common school, its continuance by vari- 
ous expedients, weakening with the passing of the years, 
the rise and decadence of the public grammar school, 
the licensing of select and fostering of charity schools 
and the founding of the college appear with sufficient 
distinctness to warrant the statement that the line of 
popular instruction was never entirely broken. With 
independence and statehood, New York soion became 
prominent in the onward movement of education and 
her leadership has since been as pronounced as was the 
original impulse of the colony from which she sprung. 

As a state, however, she gave her first attention to 
higher and not to elementary education, according in 
this respect with the English provincial policy, her 
statesmen also who were fashioning the commonwealth 
being mindful of the conception of a university which 
Diderot and other French philosophers had enunciated 
in their writings. In response, therefore, to the appeal, 
which Governor George Clinton addressed to the legis- 
lature that convened immediately after the close of the 
revolutionary war; an act was passed, on the first of 
May, 1784, which vested in a corporation, The Regents 
of the University of the State of New York, all the 
rights, privileges, and immunities that had inhered in 
the governors of Kings college, which had been seriously 
embarrassed in its conduct and property by the war 
and the reorganization of which was urgently de- 
manded. The act also empowered the regents to found 
schools and colleges in any part of the state and to 
endow the same. The regents comprised the governor, 
lieutenant governor, president of the senate, speaker of 
the assembly, attorney-general, the mayors of New York 
and Albany, twenty-four persons named from the eleven 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 15 

counties, and others selected by the clergy of the re- 
spective religious denominations, one from each body. 
On the 2(Jth of November, 1784, the act was amended by 
adding to the number of regents thirty-three others 
specifically named and providing that a quorum for the 
transaction of business should be nine, including the 
presiding officer — the chancellor. The board thus con- 
stituted was a cumbrous body (sixty-four, exclusive of 
the clerical representatives), was widely scattered and 
manifestly incompetent to perform its functions as 
trustees of the college. 

It soon recognized its own deficiencies and the neces- 
sity for remedial measures. A duly appointed com- 
mittee, upon which were Alexander Hamilton and Ezra 
L'Hommedieu, justly accredited as the authors of the 
university system that has since obtained, presented a 
report, which the board adopted, in which the defects 
of the law were clearly set forth and a plan of reorgani- 
zation was outlined. In this report a pregnant para- 
graph occurs which shows the appreciation entertained 
by the board of the obligation of the state to general as 
well as to higher education. This is its expression: 
"But before your committee conclude, they feel them- 
selves bound in faithfulness to add that the erecting of 
public schools for teaching reading, writing and arith- 
metic is an object of very great importance, which ought 
not to be left to the discretion of private men. but be 
promoted by public authority. Of so much knowledge, 
no citizen ought to be destitute, and yet it is a reflection, 
as true as it is painful, that but too many of our youth 
are brought up in utter ignorance." The main recom- 
mendations oif the committee were embodied in a bill, 
which became a law. on the 13th of November, 1787, 
and has remained substantially unchanged, except as 
the jurisdiction of the university has, from time to time, 
been enlarged, partly by force of the original measure 
and partly by special statutes, its field of work now in- 
cluding not only academies, colleges, professional and 
technical schools, but also libraries, museums, study 
clubs, extension teaching and similar agencies for home 
education. The law of 1787, repealing the prior acts 
relating to the university and directing the separate 
government of Kings, in it styled Columbia, college, cre- 
ated a body of twenty-one regents, of whom the gover- 
nor and lieutenant governor, for the time being, were 
two. In 1842 and 1854 respectively, the secretary of 



16 Department of Public Instruction, 

state and the superintendent of public instruction were- 
made members ex officio, thus increasing the board to 
twenty-three. The remaining nineteen were named, to 
serve without compensation, their successors, as resig- 
nations or deaths should occur, to be elected by and to 
hold office during the pleasure of the legislature — a life 
tenure. 
rowers of The regents were empowered to charter colleges and 
regents to incorporate academies and to have supervision over 
the same, being authorized and required to visit and in- 
spect them, examine into the condition of education 
and the discipline therein and to make an annual re- 
port thereof to the legislature. They were to have au- 
thority to confer degrees above that of master of arts 
and to apply their estate and funds in such manner as, 
in their judgment, should be most conducive to the pro- 
motion of literature and the advancement of useful 
knowledge. In 1894, they were made a constitutional 
bi i ly, to be governed and its corporate powers exercised 
by regents whose number shall not be less than nine. 
By the legislation of this year, their number has been 
reduced to eleven, with tenures of eleven years each. 
The reorganized board is 117 years old, has been com- 
ponent, of many distinguished, and some illustrious, 
citizens, has uniformly been well officered, and has dis- 
charged its duties intelligently and efficiently. It has 
an honorable history and a wide jurisdiction — a juris- 
diction, however, which is limited by the sphere of the 
voluntary principle. It has had no connection with tax- 
supported education, except as it distributed the income 
of the literature fund and certain appropriations, by 
virtue of recent enactment, and visited and inspected 
high schools and academic departments of union 
schools. This exception, which was an anomaly, oc- 
curred by the resolution of these from the academies 
and by implication to those originally of public found- 
ation; but it has been set aside and supervision 
over tax-supported secondary education vested in 
the Commissioner of Education to whom it properly 
belongs. 
(ioTemor The first official utterance in favor of common schools 
cun'on the iu t nis state — that of the committee of the regents in 
tne n c d om-° f 1787 — ^as keen heretofore quoted. The regents re- 
inon school newed their recommendation to this effect in their 
state 1 " * e several reports to the legislature in 1793, 1794 and 1795. 



A REVIEW OF ITS VDMINISTRATION 17 

But it was the behest of Governor George Clinton, 
more than any other persuasion, that induced the legis- 
lature to lay the foundations of the common school 
in this commonwealth. George Clinton, soldier of the 
revolution, statesman of the republic and the first, and 
for over twenty years, chief magistrate of the state of 
New York, had a keen appreciation of all that enured 
to its upbuilding. He was solicitous for its inter- 
ests and jealous of any invasion of its rights. His 
sturdy opposition to the ratification by New York of 
the federal constitution, because he believed that by it 
the state surrendered to the general government rights 
which it should have reserved unto itself, is explicable 
by his zeal in its behalf, his devotion to its autonomy, 
its welfare and its glory; and he certainly regarded 
the education of its youth as essential to these ends. 
It was at his suggestion that the University was in- 
corporated, as also that, in 1789, two lots, in each town- 
ship, of the public land thereafter to be surveyed was 
set apart for gospel and school purposes : and, in his 
annual message of 1795, are these memorable words: 
" While it is evident that the general establishment 
and liberal endowments of academies are highly to be 
commended, and are attended with the most beneficial 
consequences, yet, it cannot be denied that they are 
principally confined to the children of the opulent, and 
that a great portion of the community is excluded from 
their immediate advantage. The establishment of com- 
mon schools throughout the state is happily calculated 
to remedy this inconvenience, and will, therefore, en- 
gage your early and decided consideration." In con- 
formity with this injunction, " an act for the encour- The first 
agement of schools" in that year provided that **1 islatlve 
£20,000 should be annually appropriated for five 
years "for the purpose of encouraging and maintain- 
ing schools in the several cities and towns in this state, 
in which the children of the inhabitants residing in 
the state shall be instructed in the English language, 
or be taught English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics 
and such other branches of knowledge as are most 
useful and necessary to complete a good English edu- 
cation." The act regulated the quota by counties but, 
beyond this, the apportionment was made on the basis 
of the taxable inhabitants, and the supervisors of the 
counties were required to raise by tax in each town a 
sum equal to half of that received from the state. 

2 



1& Dbpartmknt op Public Instruction 

Provision was made for the supervision of the schools 
and for annual reports. Returns from sixteen out of 
the twenty-three counties, for the year 1798, show that 
1,352 schools were then organized in which 59,660 
children were taught. The law expired by its own limi- 
tation in 1800. In 1801 an enactment for the raising 
by lotteries of the sum of $100,000 was made. $12,500 
thereof were to be paid to the regents, by them to 
be distributed to the academies and the remaining 
$87,500 were to be deposited in the treasury, to be 
disposed of for the benefit of the common schools in 
such manner as the legislature should determine. The 
comptroller was directed subsequently to invest the pro- 
ceeds in real estate. The principal responsibility for 
this act and for certain laudable attempts at educa- 
tional legislation, during the next few years, is ascribed 
to Jedediah Peck and Adam Comstock, who served 
together for an extended period in the assembly and 
senate and who were not liberally educated men, but 
notably sagacious, diligent and patriotic. The lot- 
teries, w T hich now seem an exceedingly objectionable 
device for advancing the cause, for which they were 
utilized, but which public sentiment then approved, 
were known as " literature lotteries " and existed until 
1821 when, by the constitution, all lotteries w r ere pro- 
hibited. 
Land* de- Nothing further was accomplished, although Gov- 
■chooi »ur- ornors Jay, Clinton and Lewis successfully recoin- 
po " e * mended action, until 1805, when the Legislature 

ordained that 500,000 acres of the vacant and unappro- 
priated lands of the state should be sold and the avails 
made a permanent school fund, when the interest 
thereon should amount to $50,000. In 1811, Governor 
Tompkins again called attention to the subject, and 
he w r as authorized to appoint five commissioners to 
report a plan for the organization and establishment 
of common schools. He named, as such commissioners, 
Jedediah Peck, John Murray, jr., Samuel Russell, 
Roger Skinner and Samuel Macomb, who, on the 14th 
of February, 1812, submitted a report, accompanied by 
the draft of a bill, which in the law adopted during 
the legislative session of that year became one of the 
most momentous steps ever taken in educational prog- 
ress, here or elsewhere. 

The outlines of the plan, as sketched by the com- 
missioners, were these : " That the several towns in*tbe 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 19 

state be divided into school districts, by three com* 
missioners, elected by the citizens qualified to vote for 
town officers; that three trustees be elected in each 
district, to whom shall be confided the care and super- 
intendence of the school to be established therein; that 
the interest of the school fund be divided among the 
different counties and towns, according to their respec- 
tive population, as ascertained by the successive cen- 
suses of the United States; that the proportions re- 
ceived by the respective towns be subdivided among 
the districts into which such towns shall be divided, 
according to the number of children in each, between 
the ages of five and fifteen years ; that each town raise 
by tax annually as much money as it shall have re- 
ceived from the school funds; that the gross amount 
of monejs received from the state and raised by the 
towns be appropriated exclusively to the payment of 
the wages of the teachers; and that the whole system 
be placed under the superintendence of an officer ap- 
pointed by the Council of Appointment." 

It is from this last mentioned article that New York The second 

■••i t • ednca- 

derives her second educational primacy, in a state sys- tionai pri- 
tem with a single responsible head. Its wisdom has been jJ , e a ^ y Yoru 
vindicated by the experience of ninety years, and her 
leading therein has been followed by every state in the 
union. In some other respects, the commissioners ad- 
mit that from the common school systems of neighbor- 
ing states they had gathered much important informa- 
tion, but in this respect they learned nothing from 
others. They created. One section of the law, that 
which made it optional with a town to comply with, or 
to forego the advantages and avoid the burdens of the 
act, was soon seen to need modification ; and, in the 
second year of its operation, it was, upon the suggestion 
of the superintendent, made obligatory. The adminis- 
tration of the new svstem was confided to Gideon Haw- The admin. 

• i istration 

ley, as superintendent of common schools, who proved of Gideon 
to be admirably adapted to his work. He had a genius HaTFley 
for organization, was broad-minded and of quick sym- 
pathies, patient in matters of detail and of shining in- 
tegrity of character. He was to New York, what 
Horace Mann was to Massachusetts and Henry Barnard 
was to Connecticut, both an inspirer and a guide. He 
was. as he has often been called, the father of the com- 
mon school system in the state. Born in Huntington, 
Connecticut, September 26, 1785, he became, when nine 



L!0 Department of Public Instruction 

years old, a resident of Saratoga county. He was gradu- 
ated from Union college in 1809, studied law and was 
practicing in Albany, when on the 14th of January, 
1813, he was elected superintendent. He retained office 
until February 22, 1821, meanwhile having been ap- 
pointed secretary of the regents, March 25, 1814, and 
continuing as such until 1841. In 1842 he was made a 
regent and served in that capacity until his death in 
Albany, July 17, 1870, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. 
Xo man has had a longer association, a more intimate 
acquaintance with, nor a deeper and more salutary in- 
fluence upon, our educational affairs than he. His name 
deserves to be held in lasting remembrance. Xo state- 
ment of the achievements of his administration could be 
more perspicuous than that which he modestly ascribes 
to the inherent quality of the system itself, in his sixth 
annual report, in 1819, where he says: '"The same data 
also afford evidence that common schools have risen in 
public estimation, and received a degree of care and at- 
tention to their concerns, corresponding with their in- 
crease and prosperity. If these results were the only 
evidence of a beneficial operation in the system of com- 
mon schools provided by law, they would be sufficient 
to establish the public confidence in the policy of thai 
system, and to secure it a permanent duration. But it 
is well known, although it does not appear from any 
data in the returns, that the system has produced other 
results noit less in magnitude or merit. It has secured 
our schools against the admission of unqualified 
teachers, by requiring them to submit to examination 
before a public board of inspectors, and to obtain from 
them a certificate of approbation, before they can 
legally be employed. It has imparted to common 
schools a new and more respectable character by making 
them a subject of legal notice, and investing them with 
powers to regulate their own concerns. It has corrected 
many evils in the discipline and government of schools, 
not only by excluding unqualified teachers, but by sub- 
jecting the schools and course of studies in them to the 
frequent inspection of public officers. It has founded 
schools in places where, by conflicting interests or warn 
of concert in the inhabitants, none had been before es- 
tablished; and, it has. by its pecuniary aid, enabled 
many indigent children to receive the benefits of educa- 
tion which would not otherwise have been within their 
reach." In 1821, when Superintendent Hawley retired. 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 21 

there were 6,323 organized school districts, from 5,489 
of which reports had been made, showing that 317,633 
children had been under instruction during that year, 
that the public bounty was sufficient to defray the ex- 
penses of the schools, for about three months in each 
year and that in most of the districts poor children 
were enabled to attend school free of charge. It is in- 
teresting to note that the unification of the educational 
systems of the state was practically, if not nominally, 
accomplished under Mr. Hawley, from the fact that he 
was for seven years both superintendent of common 
schools and secretary of the board of regents. 

In 1805, an educational work was begun in the city sSfoor^si- 
of New York and continued until 1853, to which, jg^Vork 
although it did not come within the specific direction city 
of the educational department of the state, reference 
is here pertinent, because of the standing of the men 
enlisted in it, the zeal with which it was prosecuted, 
the good it wrought, and, more than all, the earnest 
and even bitter controversy it inspired and the princi- 
ple which the issue of that controversy confirmed. On 
the 19th of February, 1805, twelve prominent citizens 
of New York, impressed with the conviction that no 
opportunity was afforded for the education of children, 
outside the charitable and denominational schools, met 
at the house of John Murray in Pearl street and ap- 
pointed a committee to devise a plan of relief. The 
report of the committee, sustained by hundreds of 
signatures to a petition to the legislature, resulted in 
a law of the same year entitled "An act to incorporate 
the society instituted in the city of New York for the 
establishment of a free school for the education of 
poor children who do not belong 1<>. or are not pro- 
vided for, by any religious society.'' Its income was 
restricted to |10,000 and the annual membership fee 
was fixed at eight dollars, but members contributing 
$25 were privileged to send one and those contribut- 
ing $ 40 two children to any school under its care. The 
number of trustees was thirteen, increased from time 
to time until it reached LOO. In all 434 persons served 
in this capacity. l>e\Yi11 Clinton was the first presi- 
dent continuing as such until his death in 1828. In 
1808, the name was changed i<> I he Free School 
Society of New York, and its scope enlarged " to all 
children who are the proper subjects of a gratuitous 
education.'' In 1826, the corporation was styled " The 



22 Department of Public Instruction 

Public School Society of New York " and the trustees 
were authorized to provide for the education of all 
children in the city of New York not otherwise pro- 
vided for "whether such children be or be not the proper 
objects of gratuitous education, and without regard to 
the religious sect or denomination to which such 
children or their parents may belong ; " and to require 
from those attending the schools a moderate compensa- 
tion ; but no child to be refused admission on account 
of inability to pay. The pay system was, however, 
abolished in 1832. At the outset subscriptions were 
obtained and on the 19th day of May, 1806, the first 
school was opened. In 1807 an appropriation of $1,000 
was made by the legislature toward erecting a house 
and $1,000 were directed to be paid annually for defray- 
ing the expenses of the school. The city also gave a 
building and $500 for repairing it, on condition that 
the society should teach fifty almshouse children. 
State and municipal aid thus began ; grant succeeded 
grant; and the schools became public to all intents and 
purposes, although under the control of a private cor- 
poration. In 1813 the legislature ordained that that 
portion of the school moneys apportioned to and raised 
in the city of New York should be distributed " to the 
trustees of the Free School Society, the Orphan Asylum 
Society, the African Free School and the trustees of 
such incorporated religious societies in said city as now 
support, or hereafter shall establish, charity schools 
within the said city, who may apply for the same." The 
distribution was to be limited strictly to the payment 
of teachers' wages. In 1824 the common council was 
authorized to designate the societies and schools which 
should receive the school moneys, and thereafter nearly 
nine-tenths of the amount thereof was dispensed to and 
expended by the Public School Society which, at the 
time, had six schools, with an attendance of over 5,000 
pupils. 
The de- In the initial appeal of that society for means with 

the «ie- which to prosecute its work, it was stated that it would 
«onai a " be " a primary object, without observing the peculiar 
■chooia forms of any religious society, to inculcate the divine 
truths of religion and morality contained in the Holy 
Scriptures," and the reading of the King James version 
of the Bible and lessons thence drawn were prescribed 
In the curriculum. By many, this was construed as 
rendering the schools denominational and the demand, 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 28 

as a claim in equity, for a portion of the school moneys 
was pressed by pronounced sectarian schools and the 
objection was also urged that it was undemocratic and 
inimical to the spirit of our free institutions that a 
private corporation should have the management of 
schools sustained almost wholly by appropriations from 
the public treasury. The agitation thus engendered 
waxed fast and furious for many years, extending 
beyond the metropolis through the state, eliciting in 
behalf of the distribution of school moneys among the 
sects the voice of Archbishop Hughes and the pen of 
McMaster of the Freeman's Journal and the mes- 
sages of Governor Seward, and against it the speeches 
of Theodore Sedgwick, Hiram Ketchum, Gardiner 
Spring and other distinguished protagonists of the 
Public Society in its favor, while John C. Spencer, secre- 
tary of state, wrote a notable weighty and luminous 
report against the policy of an educational system in 
the hands of a private corporation, rather than in those 
of the people, describing it as foreign to the feelings, 
habits and usages of our citizens, and proposing the 
organization of a board, by the popular suffrage, that 
should have charge of all school interests, the public 
moneys to be paid to and by it disbursed. 

The result was the passage of a law on the 9th of Yoru" *Tty 
April, 1842, entitled "An act to extend to the city and {^u«itto H 
county of New York the provisions of the general act 
in relation to common schools." It provided for the 
election of commissioners, inspectors and trustees by 
wards, the resolution of the commissioners into the 
board of education, the raising by general tax of funds 
for the maintenance of the schools, the placing of the 
Public School Society and several charitable educa- 
tional institutions under the jurisdiction of the board, 
they to be classed, in the distribution of school moneys, 
as district schools of the city, and it was ordained 
that no school in which any sectarian doctrine or tenet 
was taught or practiced should receive any part of the 
school moneys. Eleven years later the Public School 
Society surrendered to the Board of Education all its 
property, real and personal, valued at $454,421.85, in- 
cluding seventy-eight schools, and with the introduc- 
tion into that board of fifteen commissioners of its 
selection, its efficient, and, in many respects, commend- 
able and honorable service of forty-eight years ended. 



24 Department of Public Instruction 

The secre- when Gideon Hawley was retired, he had laid 
sfate °be- broadly and deeply the foundations of a symmetrical 
perintend- educational structure; had secured ju . n • 

common ments to the educational statutes ; b 
schools stantially shaped the codification of 1819, which u 

no essential changes in the machinery of the school.-. 
and had accompanied its publication with an exposi- 
tion of its provisions and forms for proceedings 
under it; had seen the proportion of children 
attending school increase from 4-5 to 24-25 of 
those of school age; the average time the schools 
were kept open lengthen in about the same ratio, 
and the principal of the common school fund appreci- 
ate from $822,064.74 to $1,185,641.98. Welcome E 
was appointed successor to Mr. Hawley. but his term 
w T as brief. Within less than throe months, the super- 
intendency, as a separate department of the govern- 
ment was abolished and its duties were relegated to the 
secretary of state, who was elected for a term of three 
years by joint ballot of the senate and assembly. John 
tration^of VanXess Yates was the first incumbent. Coincident 
Ness' Ya a t"s with the new order, was the article in the constitution 
to the effect that all lands thereafter sold should con- 
stitute a perpetual fund, the interest of which should 
be inviolably appropriated and applied to the sn 
of the common schools throu state — a solemn 

pledge in the organic low which, renewed in 1846 and 
1894, has been observed faithfully. In 1S22, the secre- 
tary was invested with appellate jurisdiction over all 
controversies arising under the school laws and his 
decision thereon made final, a power which since uni- 
formly inhering in the head of the school department 
has been of signal advantage to its coherence, efficiency 
and authority and has relieved the courts of litiga- 
tion much of which would have been annoying and 
burdensome. On the 12th of January, 1825, Mr. Yates 
transmitted his last annual report to the legislature, 
from which it appears that 402,940 children had been 
taught, for an average period of nine months, during 
the preceding year, the number of districts was 7,<>42 
from 6,936 of which reports had been received, and the 
aggregate amount of teachers' wages in the reporting 
districts was $182,741.61. 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION - 

Azariah C. Flagg was appointed secretary of state f r * 1 t n i *," ,s „"f 
February 14, 1826, and served until February 1, 1833. Azariah c 
The annual message of Governor DeWitt Clinton, in 
1826, was remarkable for its intelligent discussion of 
educational subjects and its liberal recommendations 
in behalf of the common schools, and especially in that 
it proposed a seminary for the preparation of teachers 
and state visitation of the schools, which was reiterated 
in 1827 and 1828, both of which, subsequently embraced 
in our educational system, have been among its most 
effective agencies for good. The message of the gover- 
nor elicited from the literature committee of the senate 
a report, of which John C. Spencer was the author, that 
urged the adoption of the scheme of county supervision, 
inspection and licensing of teachers, but concluded that, 
for the time being, owing to economical considerations, 
the colleges and academies must suffice as nurseries of 
teachers, advising, however, that the income of the 
literature fund should be divided among these, by the 
regents, in proportion to the number of scholars pursu- 
ing English, as well as that of those engaged in classi- 
cal studies; and the committee was unable to discover 
why, upon principles of justice and public policy, insti- 
tutions for females should not participate equally with 
those for males in the public bounty. In 1S27, Mr. 
Spencer made a second report of similar tenor to the 
first, and framed a bill, which became a law, entitled 
"An act to provide permanent funds for the annual ap- 



ool and 
rature 



ture fund, and to promote the education of teachers," "^Ji* 
which, after transferring certain state moneys to the 
common school and literature funds respectively, di- 
rected that the income of the latter should be dis- 
tributed among the incorporated academies and semi- 
naries, other than colleges, subject to the visitation of 
the regents, in proportion to the number of pupils in- 
structed in each academy or seminary for six months 
during the preceding year, who shall have pursued 
either classical studies, or the higher branches of Eng- 
lish education, or both. 

Secretary Flagg advocated consistently the founding The i>e S -i»- 
of distinct institutions for the instruction of teachers, normal 
In his report of 1830, he alludes approvingly to a aclxoal 
memorial presented to the legislature at its preceding 
session, from a committee of the citizens of Rochester, 
asking for the establishment of a state seminary for 



•JG Department of Public Instruction 

teachers and a central school in each town. The de- 
mand for such a seminary had already become pro- 
nounced in several northern states. So early as 1789, it 
had been intimated in an essay in the Massachusetts 
Magazine. Professor Denison Olmstead, of Yale col- 
lege, in an address at New Haven, in 1816, had advo- 
cated it eloquently. Professor Kingsley, of Yale college, 
favored it in an article in the Xorth American Review 
in 1828. James G. Carter, who is called the " father of 
the normal schools" in the United States, described its 
principal features in a series of papers in the Boston 
Patriot in 1825; it was emphasized by the Rev. Thomas 
H. Gallaudet in 1825, and, in the same year, Walter R. 
Johnson, of Germantown, Pa., issued a pamphlet, philo- 
sophical in its affirmance of the proposition, that at- 
tracted wide assent from educators, while, in 1833, 
President Junkin, of Lafayette, and President Golton, 
of Bristol college, pressed it upon the Pennsylvania 
legislature. In 183G Professor Calvin E. Stowe, at the 
request of the legislature of Ohio, visited the Prussian 
normal schools and, in his report to that body, advised 
it to incorporate similar schools — a report which was 
republished by order of the legislatures of Massachu- 
setts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, and North 
Carolina respectively. Honor to whom honor is due. If 
Massachusetts, impelled by the enthusiasm of Horace 
Mann, did erect, in 1839, the first normal school in the 
country, neither the thought of DeWitt Clinton, in 1826, ) 
nor the plea of Azariah C. Flagg, in 1830, should be for- 
gotten. When Secretary Flagg left his office, in 1833, to 
become comptroller, the number of districts was 9,600 
and of children taught therein 491,459, being an in- 
crease of 195S and 91,519 respectively over those last re- 
ported by Secretary Yates. The amount of public 
money expended for payment of teachers' wages had 
risen* to $305,572.78 of which $100,000 came from the 
common school fund. 
A.iminis- John A. Dix, who filled many state and national posi- 
joni"^.. tions, including those of United States senator, secre- 
tary of the treasury, minister to France, governor and 
major-general during the civil war, with eminent credit 
and usefulness, was appointed secretary of state Febru- 
ary 1, 1833, and served until February 4, 1839. As such, 
not less than in his other public capacities, he displayed 
his civic worth. He was loyal to the cause of education 
and, under him, school affairs were prudently and 



Dix 



A REVTEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 27 

wisely ordered, salutary reforms were accomplished and 
decided progress was made. In 1835, the foundations 
of the district school library were laid by an act au- 
thorizing the taxable inhabitants of the several school 
districts to levy a tax, not exceeding twenty dollars for 
the first year and ten dollars for each succeeding year, 
"for the purchase of a district library, consisting of 
such books as they shall in their district meeting 
direct." 

The first step taken by New York for the profes j£SS 
sional education of teachers was the Act of May 2, ™% n J; ci j£. 
1834. This act provided for a "normal department" in emie. 
one academy, in each of the eight judicial districts, ap- 
propriating to each $500 for the purchase of apparatus, 
maps, charts and globes, and $400 annually for teachers. 
Each of these schools was to have a local "board of visi- 
tors" who were to report the results of their inspection 
to the secretary of state. 

Secretary Dix was not in accord with the effort in 
behalf of seminaries exclusively for teachers and, on the 
5th of January. 183G, as chairman of the committee of 
the regents to prepare a. plan for the better education 
of teachers, held that the organization of a teachers' 
department in one academy in each of the eight sena- 
torial districts would supply the existing need, and that 
each such academy should receive annually from the 
literature fund $400 to that end. His report was 
adopted and the academies were designated by the re- 
gents. 

On the 0th of May of the same year, Prosper M. ft • r "*"" 1 " 
Wetmore, chairman of the literature committee of unification 
the assembly, and then and for many years there- 
after a regent of the university, made to the assembly 
an exhaustive report in favor of the establishment 
of a separate "Department of Public Instruction" 
in charge of an officer to be known as "Secretary of 
Public Instruction," who should possess all the func- 
tions of the Superintendent of Common Schools and 
also be ex officio Chancellor of the University, with the 
colleges and academies, as well as common schools, sub- 
ject to his visitation. Nothing practical came of this 
program of unification, but it may not be, even at this 
day, unworthy of consideration. In his annual message 
for 1837, Governor Marey recommended the transfer of 
the general superintendence and supervision of the 
academies frorn the regents to the secretary of state, as 



28 Department of I'jjijuc Instruction 

superintendent. No legislative action was had upon 
this proposition, but it is in evidence as the revelation 
that one of the ablest statesmen and executives that 
New York has produced believed that the conduct of 
secondary education inheres properly in the superin- 
tendent of public instruction rather than in the regents. 
The governor in his message, a year later, maintained 
that the designated academies were inadequate to sup- 
ply the needed teachers and suggested the institution of 
county normal schools. In 1838, the sum of $100,000 
was added, from the revenue of the United States de- 
posit fund, to that of the common school fund, making 
a total of f275,000 of which $55,000 was set apart for 
the purchase of books annually for district libraries 
and the remainder for teachers' wages. An equal 
amount was also to be levied upon the people for the 
same purpose. In his last annual report, in 1839, the 
secretary stated that there were 10,583 organized school 
districts and 528.913 children were taught therein — an 
increase of 983 and 31.051 respectively during his 
tenure. The amount paid for teachers' wages had 
reached $335,882.92. 
Atiminis- Another of the great men of New York, John C. 
jo^mVc. Spencer, who served the commonwealth in both 
spencer branches of the legislature and the nation in the house 
of representatives and in two seats in the cabinet, suc- 
ceeded John A. Dix as secretary, in 1839, and remained 
until October 12, 1811, when, upon his becoming secre- 
tary of war, the duties of superintendent devolved upon 
the General Deputy, Samuel S. Randall, who discharged 
them until February 7, 1S12. Mr. Spencer was a man of 
acute intellect and disciplined faculties, exact in 
thought and vigorous in expression, tenacious of his 
views, and his administration was marked not less by 
the discussion of policies than by real reforms effected. 
As already indicated, he was deeply interested in the 
determination of the management of and appropria- 
tions for schools in New York city and was strenuously 
opposed to the introduction of normal schools, but as 
strenuously urged the increase of the number of acade- 
mies in which teachers should be instructed. 
county an- i n 1S40 the "board of visitors" at Mount Morris, in 
ents their report, recommended a "state seminary devoted 

exclusively to the training of teachers." By an ordi- 
nance of the regents, of the 4th of May, 1811, apportion- 
ments were made to two academies in each senatorial 



A i;i:yii:\y of its administration 20 

district, and, in addition, seven oilier academies were 
given $700 each from the literature fund for that pur- 
pose. On the 26th of May, the legislature passed an act, 
drafted by Mr. Spencer, providing for the appointment, 
biennially, by each board of supervisors, of a superin- 
tendent charged, as the title implies, with general cure 
of the schools within his county and the hearing of ap- 
peals. This office, the propriety of which was in issue 
from first to last, existed less than seven years, being 
abolished on the 13th of November, 1847. It had its 
ardent champions, as it still has, being sanctioned in 
several states, and its severe critics who constantly 
labored for its overthrow. By its friends, it was re- 
garded as a necessary link between the town and dis- 
trict officials and the state bureau, as relieving the 
latter of much of petty details and trivial disputes, and 
as promoting the unity of the school system and an 
esprit de corps among its servants. Its foes objected to 
the method of appointment, by boards of supervisors not 
conversant with school mailers and more or less actu- 
ated in their choice by political motives and expedien- 
cies, and they also exaggerated the pecuniary burden 
imposed upon the localities which were constrained to 
pay one-half of the salary of the county superintendent. 
Continual assaults finally prevailed against it, notwith- 
standing the adherence to it of the state department and 
a large majority of prominent educators. Upon the 
whole, it worked well, especially as an intermediary be- 
tween the town commissioners and the secretary, and, 
save in rare cases, it did not lack faithful and enlight- 
ened administration. On the 5th of January, 1842, 
Vcting Superintendent Randall transmitted to the legis- 
lature his annual report, from which it appears that, 
exclusive of the city of New York, 603,583 children Avere 
taught in 10,886 districts reporting, an increase of 303 
and 74,670 respectively since the retirement of Secre- 
tary Dix. The amount received from the state by the 
schools, including the revenue from the United States 
deposit fund was $65S,954.70. 

Samuel Young became secretary of state and head Adminis- 
of the common school system, February 7, 1842. Dm- sVnmJi ° 
ing a long political career, he held many offices of dig Youns 
nity and trust — judge of Saratoga county, delegate to 
the constitutional convention of 1821, assemblyman 
three years and speaker one, canal commissioner, regent 
of the university from 1817 until 1825, and state sen- 



SO Dotaktmbnt of Public Instruction 

ator for twelve years. He was also an unsuccessful 
candidate for governor, by a narrow margin of votes, 
against DeWitt Clinton in 1S24. He was not, when 
chosen secretary, regarded as especially well versed in 
common srhool matters, but he brought to their con- 
sideration habits of close investigation, eminent clarity 
and rectitude of judgment, and an earnest resolution 
to guard and advance their interests. No reports of 
any superintendent are characterized by a more lucid 
perception of educational needs, a more catholic recep- 
tion of new ideas, in several instances reversing his pre- 
conceived notions, a more intimate acquaintance with 
the details of management, or a more candid and forc- 
ible style of presenting his conclusions ; and the normal 
school and teachers' institute are greatly indebted to 
him — the one for its establishment and the other for the 
encouragement given to its inception. The persuasive 
impetus to the being of the normal school in this state 
seems to have emanated from a convention of county 
superintendents at Utica, in 1842, before which the Rev. 
Alonzo Potter, D.D., then professor of mathematics in 
Union college and later the Protestant Episcopal 
bishop of Pennsylvania, Horace Mann and others 
advocated the project and the convention, by resolu- 
tion, approved it cordially. At a like convention, the 
ensuing year, similar indorsement was made. Secre- 
tary Young, in his report in 1843, declared that the 
teachers' departments in the academies were not ful- 
filling their design " because the bounty of the state 
was diffused over too wide a surface, and recommended 
their reduction to four and the appropriation of a sum 
sufficient to establish and maintain a normal school 
at the state capital." 
The Hui- In 1844, decisive action was had. The Honorable 

port Jn" Calvin T. Hulburd, chairman of the assembly coin- 
■eiloou mittee on colleges, academies and common schools, who 
had visited the several normal schools of Massachusetts 
and had familiarized himself with their methods and 
had also collected statistics concerning the operation of 
such schools in Prussia and other European countries, 
made, on the 22d of March, an exhaustive report upon 
the subject, which remains a monument of patient 
labor, valuable information and sagacious direction. 
Few educational papers have excelled it, either in the 
knowledge it imparts, or the worth of its counsel. It 
is still frequently referred to. The following passage 



A BBVIBW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION il 

will bear quoting, especially as emphasizing the pre- 
scient spirit that informs it throughout : " It will be 
noticed that the committee speak of the establishment 
of one normal school : Did our present means seem to 
warrant it, the committee would, with confidence, 
recommend the immediate establishment of at least one 
in each of the eight senatorial districts. If one is now 
established, and that is properly endowed and organ- 
ized, there cannot be a doubt that not only one will 
be called for in each of the eight senatorial districts, 
but in a brief period very many of the large counties 
will insist upon having one established within their 
limits. The establishment of one is but an experi- 
ment — if that can be called an experiment, which for 
more than a century has been in operation, without 
a known failure, which, if successful, will lead the way 
for several others. * * * The committee believe 
the experiment should be tried at the capital; if it can- 
not be tested in the presence of all the people, it should 
be before all the representatives of the people. As a 
government measure, it is untried in this state; the 
result, therefore, will be of deep interest. Here at each 
annual session of the legislature, can be seen for what 
and how the public money is expended ; here can be 
seen the exhibition of the pupils of the seminary and 
the model school; here, if unsuccessful, no report of 
interested officials can cover up its failures, or prevent 
the abandonment of the experiment ; here citizens from 
all parts of the state, who resort to the capital during 
the session of the legislature, the terms of the courts, 
etc., can have an opportunity of examining the work- 
ings of the normal school system; of learning the best 
method of teaching, and all the improvements in the 
science and practice of the art; those ^vho, in the spring 
and autumn, pass through the city, and to and from 
the great metropolis, and those who from all parts of 
the union make their annual pilgrimage to the fountain 
of health, will pause here to see what the Empire state 
is doing to promote the education of her people." 

With the report, Mr. Hulburd introduced a bill which. The Albany 
earnestly supported by Michael Hoffman and other s<Th™i ana 
influential legislators, became a law, by which the sum Collejce 
of |9,000 was appropriated for the first year and $10,000 
annually for five years thereafter, for the establish- 
ment and support of a normal school at Albany, 
under the joint supervision of the superintendent of 



32 Department of Public Instruction 

the common schools and the regents of the university, 
who were required to apportion the pupils from the 
several counties, according to population, and to ap- 
point an executive committee of five persons, one of 
whom should be the superintendent of common schools, 
and who has uniformly been the chairman, in whose 
hands the immediate government of the institution was 
placed. The first committee thus authorized was espe- 
cially titled to plan the work. It consisted' of Samuel 
Young, Alonzo Potter, the Rev. William H. Campbell, 
afterward president of Rutgers college, Gideon Hawley, 
then secretary of the regents and Francis D wight, 
admitted. Tuition was free, a small weekly sum was 
allowed for board, and textbooks were furnished by 
the state. To equalize the privileges transportation 
charges were also paid. The school continued for 
nearly fifty years, along the lines originally laid down 
and largely in conformity with the Massachusets sys- 
tem — English, classical and scientific courses, together 
with psychology, pedagogy, the history of education, 
methodology, school ecouumy, observation of model les- 
sons and practice in actual teaching. It had a remark- 
able succession of able and magnetic principals. — David 
P. Page, George R. Perkins, Samuel B. Woolworth, 
David H. Cochran, Oliver Arey, Joseph Alden and 
Edward P. Waterbury. During these years, nearly 
3,800 students were graduated, two-thirds being women 
and one-third men, a very large majority of whom 
engaged in teaching, for longer or shorter periods, many 
making it their life-work. On the 29th of October 1S89, 
William J. Milne, LL.D., who had been, for eighteen 
years, at the head of the Geneseo normal school was 
called to the Albany school and accepted with the 
understanding that it should be made a normal college 
- — a purely professional institution. On the 13th of 
March, 1890, it was so chartered by the regents with the 
power to confer the degrees of bachelor, master and 
doctor of pedagogy, its corporate name being the New 
York State Normal College. Doctor Milne was ap- 
pointed president and so remains. Besides the college, 
there are now eleven normal schools, their location and 
dates of foundation being as follows: Oswego, 1863; 
Cortland, 1866; Fredonia, 1S66; Potsdam, 1866; Gen- 
eseo, 1867; Brockport, 1867; Buffalo, 1867; New Pakz. 
1SS5; Oneonta, 1887; Plattsburg, 1890; Jamaica, 1897. 



A REVIEW OP ITS ADMINISTRATION 33 

It was during Secretary Young's incumbency that ^f^J 1 *^ 
teachers' institutes which, for sixty years, have been started 
a vitalizing influence in inspiring and exalting the 
teaching profession had conception. Their origin is 
traced to a resolution, offered before the teachers' asso- 
ciation of Tompkins county in 1843 by Jacob S. Den- 
man its superintendent, and by it adopted, to the effect 
that a county institute should be held in the spring 
and fall of each year for receiving lessons from efficient 
instructors, in hearing lectures from scientific men, and 
in discussing plans for the improvement of the schools. 
The first institute was opened in Ithaca, on the 4th 
of April, 1S43, and continued for two weeks, under 
the direction of Mr. Dennian, in listening to Salem 
Town, who afterwards became a veritable missionary 
in his educational labors, and others as instructors and 
lecturers. The institute, which soon became popular 
throughout the state, was, at first, a sincere, if inade- 
quate, effort to supply the lack of normal schools and 
was wholly voluntary as to attendance, the expenses 
being born by the teachers themselves. In his report 
of 1845 the secretary observes: " In no less than seven- 
teen of the largest counties, teachers' institutes have 
been established during the past two years, in which 
upwards of 1,000 teachers have been instructed during 
periods varing from two to six or eight weeks, imme- 
diately preceding the commencement of their respec- 
tive terms of instruct ion, by the most competent and 
experienced educators whose services could be procured, 
in conjunction with the county superintendent. The 
course of instruction consists generally of a critical 
and thorough review of all the elementary branches 
required to be taught in the common schools, full 
expositions and illustrations of the most approved 
methods of communicating knowledge to the young, and 
of the proper government and discipline of schools, 
and a mutual interchange of views and opinions among 
the teachers, instructors and superintendent. Among 
the numerous improvements which the experience of 
past imperfections has introduced into the practical 
operation of our common schools, there is none which 
combines so much utility and value as these local and 
temporary institutions; and in the judgment of the 
superintendent they are highly deserving of legislative 
aid." In his report of 1901, the present superintendent 



;j-l Department ok Public Instruction 

of public instruction gave a history of the rise, progress 
;md purposes of the institute from which the following 
abstract may be taken : 

1843. First institutes held. Purely voluntary meet- 
ings. No state aid or state supervision. 

1847. Institutes placed under state control. First 
state aid, viz. : $00 to each county organizing an insti- 
tute. 

1859. Increased to $120 per county. 

1860-97. Increased by various increments from 
$8,000 for the state in the first year to $40,000 in the 
last. 

1862. Local authorities allowed to pay teachers regu- 
lar salary during attendance upon institutes. 

1881. Regular corps of state institute conductors or- 
ganized. 

1885. Attendance of teachers made compulsory, also 
payment of regular salary to teachers for time spent in 
attendance. All schools in the institute district closed 
by law during the session, except in cities. 

1888. County institutes changed to commissioner dis- 
trict institutes, except in cases of unusually small dis- 
tricts which held joint institutes. 

1890. Schools in union free school districts of over 
5,000 population and employing a superintendent of 
schools exempted from compulsory closing. 

1892. Department bureau of institutes and training 
classes organized. 

1895. Graded or sectional institutes organized under 
present plan. 

1896. City institutes began. State summer insti- 
tutes established. 

1898. Bureau of institutes and training classes reor- 
ganized into two separate bureaus. 
Teachers' New York, the pioneer in institute work has had three 
aTnow* 1 " stages that have been especially prominent: the first, 
operated w h en the instruction was almost wholly subject matter; 
the second, when for a time the tendency was to amuse 
rather than instruct ; the third, when teachers, recogniz- 
ing the importance of professional training, demanded 
that institutes should be a medium through which might 
be disseminated a broader knowledge of the principles 
of pedagogy and their application to school work. In- 
stitutes now have a recognized field o<f their own : 1. 



A REVIEW OK ITS ADMINISTRATION 35 

To expedite the work of the other bureaus of the De- 
partment by calling attention to any points that need 
special elucidation. 2. To bring specially to the teach- 
ing force instruction in those subjects in which the 
records of the examination bureau show poor results. 
3. To continue the work of the normal school and train- 
ing class by stimulating their graduates to continued 
effort and investigation, and to draw from every avail- 
able source the material necessary for success; also to 
bring the graduates of these schools and classes in con- 
tact with that large proportion of our teaching force 
which has not had the advantage of professional train- 
ing. 4. To bring from the great educational associa- 
tions, both state and national, the latest discussion of 
educational needs, methods and equipment, for consid- 
eration and study. 5. To cultivate and stimulate an 
active professional spirit in full and intelligent sym- 
pathy with the educational system of the state. 6. To 
keep the teaching force in constant touch with the state 
central authority, advised of its purposes and its 
changes in regulations affecting either the teachers' 
status or their work, and acquainted with reasons that 
have made such changes necessary or have prompted 
new legislation, in order that the department of public 
instruction, school commissioners, school boards and 
teachers may act in unison to secure results that can be 
secured in no other way. The regularly authorized 
state institute force now comprises a supervisor, five 
conductors and four special instructors. Instruction 
is also given by principals and other members of the 
faculties of the several normal schools, by superintend- 
ents, principals and teachers of the district for which 
the institute is held, and by special instructors employed 
temporarily. 

Secretary Young retired from office February 7, 1845, 
but remained upon the executive committee of the 
Albany normal school until his death an 1847. By his 
last annual report it was shown that 709,150 children 
were taught in 10,357 districts reporting — an increase 
of 95,572 and a decrease of 231 respectively from the last 
report of his predecessor. The amount paid for 
teachers' wages was, $992,222 and for library purposes 
$47,475 exclusive of sums raised locally. The number 
of volumes in the district libraries was 1,038,396. 



36 



Department of Public Instruction 



Adminis- 
tration of 
Nathaniel 
S. Benton 



Free 

schools in 
cities 



He was succeeded by Nathaniel S. Benton, who had 
held various local and federal positions and had been 
for four years a state senator. It was under his admin- 
istration that the movement to make the schools wholly 
free, throughout the state, became demonstrative. The 
rate bills, which had risen from $297,048.44 in 1829, 
to 1447.505.97 in 1844, were being discredited as unre- 
publican and inequitable, although twenty years were 
to elapse before they were to be abolished entirely. 
Some of the cities and larger villages were taking the 
matter into their own hands and seeming through 
special statutes, actual free schools for themselves. In 
New York such a law had been in operation since 1842, 
the schools being supported by general taxation and 
required to be kept open nine months of the year in 
order to receive the public moneys. By January 1, 
1848, free schools had been established in Brooklyn, 
Buffalo, Kochester, Williamsburg and Poughkeepsie, 
and, in 1848, Syracuse, Lansingburg, Flushing. New- 
town and Bushwick were added to the list, while the 
schools of Albany, Troy and Utica were substantially 
free, although not so by force of law. Thus, in 1848, 
one-fourth of the schools of the state were really free. 
It Avas by a narrow margin only that free schools failed 
v"n\ , ion < of~ to rece * ve constitutional sanction in 1S4G. In the con- 
isVo to act vention of that year. Henry Nicoll, chairman of the 
committee on education, reported the ninth article, 
including a proposition to the effect that the legislature 
should provide for the free education of all children of 
school age, the expense thereof, after the utilization of 
the public funds, to be defrayed by taxation, at the 
same time and in tin same manner, as the liquidation 
of town and county charges. This proposition was to 
. be submitted separately to the people. After an earnest 
debate, the convention adopted it by a vote of 57 to 53, 
but upon motion of Arphaxad Loomis it was subse- 
quently striken out, and the convention contented itself 
with incorporating in the constitution the article, that 
of the inviolability and appropriation of the common 
school, literature and United States deposit funds — 
shorn of the free school sections, as previously indi- 
cated. What the fate of the proposition would have 
been, had it been submitted to the people, must, of 
course, be the subject of conjecture, but, in view of their 
affirmative action in 1849, there is reason to believe that 



Failnre of 
const itn- 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION S 

their sentiment was already sufficiently enlightened to 
have assured its ratification. 

Secretary Benton, however, although a competent 
official and solicitous for the welfare of the common 
school system, seems never to have enunciated fully the 
free school principle. The nearest approach to it is in 
his last annual report, wherein after stating that the 
extension of free schools in progressing moderately, 
laws having been passed for their creation in populous 
and wealthy communities, Avhile the poorer and less 
populous districts are left to struggle on, in the best 
way they can, sustaining a school perhaps only four 
months in the year, to -secure the next apportionment 
of the public moneys, he continues : " Is this policy 
just?. Is it right to discriminate in this manner 
between the school children residing in particular 
localities, and others turned over to the naked bounties 
of the state; which, although munificent in the aggre- 
gate, are only sufficient to pay a few weeks tuition for 
each child? This great and essential question turns 
simply on the mode of taxation; by changing this and 
requiring the boards of supervisors to raise upon the 
counties respectively a sum equal to the amount appor- 
tioned from the treasury to each county for the support 
of schools, and upon the towns another sum equal to 
the apportionment of such town from the school fund, 
which would increase the local taxation upon the 
counties, not to exceed five-tenths of a mill on the valu- 
ation in any county, and our schools might be rendered 
nearly free to every child in this state." 

Among the notable features of Secretary Benton's statistic-* 
term was the abolition of the office of county super in- closest 
tendent, which he deplored sincerely, the institution of iam£fis! 
Indian schools and the support of schools exclusively Nation 
for colored children, in which, for the year 184G, in 
seventeen localities, 3,810 of these were taught. In 
order to draw the comparison further on, it may be 
interesting to present the statistics of the condition of 
school buildings and the average amount of teachers' 
wages for the year just mentioned. The whole number 
of schoo-houses visited was 9,907, of which 8,231 were 
of framed wood, 575 of brick, GOI of stone, and 598 of 
logs. The whole number reported to be in good repair 
was 3,809; in ordinary repair, 3,2S0; and in bad repair, 
2,883. There were 9,017 having one room only, and 845 
containing more than one room ; 3,181 were furnished 



38 



DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTBUWIOM 



Office of 
secretary 
of state 
made 
elective 



with suitable playgrounds ; 6,655 were destitute of such 
grounds; 2,254 were furnished with single privies; 
2,026 with double privies and 5,556 were entirely lack- 
ing in these conveniences. The whole number fur- 
nished suitably with seats and desks was 4,558, and the 
number not so furnished 5,355. The number provided 
with proper facilities for ventilation was 3,692 and the 
number not so provided 6,235. The average monthly 
compensation paid to male teachers was $15.42, and to 
female $6.69. The number of teachers under eighteen 
years employed was 2,322, of whom 1,969 were females ; 
and there were 1,943 over thirty years old, of whom 
1,434 were males. By Secretary Benton's last annual 
report it appeared that 742,433 children were taught 
in 10,494 districts reporting — an increase of 33,277 and 
137 respectively during his incumbency. The amount 
expended for teachers' wages was 11,058,814.64, and for 
libraries and school apparatus, $93,791.29. The num- 
ber of volumes in the libraries was 1,310,986. 

In 1847, the office of secretary of state, still including 
the functions of superintendent of common schools, 
became elective by the people, for a term of two years, 
and Christopher Morgan, thus chosen, assumed the 
duties thereof January 1, 1848. He was reelected in 
1849. Mr Morgan had represented his district in con- 
gress from 1839 to 1843, and was a man of large 
capacity and conversant with state affairs. His ad- 
ministration was distinguished for fidelity to the in- 
terests of the schools and progressive ideas as to their 
development. From the first, he insisted upon two 
things — the rehabilitation of the county superintend- 
ency and the ordaining of the free school in its full 
meaning and effect. In his first annual report (1849) 
he asserts that the abolition of the county superintend- 
ency was a retrogression and suggests either its restora- 
tion by popular suffrage, or the election of a superin- 
tendent in every assembly district, except in the cities, 
which have a superintendent, or board of education. He 
reiterates his recommendation, in his ensuing annual 
report (1850), saying that "it has been found utterly 
impracticable to keep up that correspondence with 
nearly 900 town officers, which the exigencies of the 
department constantly require, and which is absolutely 
essential to its practical workings." He advises that 
once in three years a superintendent for each assembly 
distriot should be elected, " whose duty it should be 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 89 

periodically to visit and examine the several schools 
in his district; to inspect and license teachers; to hear 
and pass, in the first instance, upon all appeals originat- 
ing within his district, subject to the final revision of 
the state superintendent; to receive, condense and 
transmit to the department the reports of the several 
town superintendents in his district, and generally to 
discharge such duties as may, from time to time, be 
required of him by the legislature and the Depart- 
ment;" and in his reports in 1851 and 1852 he con- 
tinues to urge action in the premises; but it was not 
until 1856 that town superintendencies were abro- 
gated and the office of school commissioner was created, 
with jurisdiction over territory mainly the same as that 
of an assembly district — cities, with superintendents, 
or boards of education, being excluded therefrom — and 
with duties of inspection, visitation, examination and 
certification of teachers and the adjudication of cases 
and controversies, in the first instance, similar to those 
formerly exercised by the county superintendent. 
The office was made elective by the people, for a term 
of three years, and so remains. 

In his annual report for 1849, Secretary Morgan pre Rmobi - 
ferred an earnest plea for the free school, a school whose tions of 
doors should be open to all who chose to enter — a morgan * 
school supported by the property of the state, which, 
in turn would find its security in the education of the 
people. On the 25th of March of that year, an act The ia™ 
entitled "An act establishing free schools throughout °* 1849 
the state" was passed, its validity being conditioned on 
the approval of the people, which was given at the gen- 
eral election in November, 249,872 ballots being cast 
for and 91,951 against it, the majority in its favor being 
157,921. By this act, common schools were declared 
free to all between the ages of five and twenty-one; 
and it was made the duty of supervisors to raise, by 
town and county taxation, an amount equal to twice 
that apportioned by the state, and the balance neces- 
sary to support the schools to be raised by district 
taxation. Notwithstanding the decisive popular ver- 
dict in its favor, virulent hostility to the enforcement 
of the law manifested itself, inequalities in taxation 
being alleged, and, perhaps, justly, in its administra- 
tion. The legislature, accordingly, submitted the ques- 
tion of the repeal of the law to the people, 
who bv m majority of 25,038 refused to sanction 



40 Department of Public Instruction 

Jcifo'iiaw sucn repeal; Dll t.< serious objections still obtain- 
ed isui j n g ? a i aw was enacted in 1851 providing that 
there should be raised by tax upon property 
within the state the sum of $800,000 annually, the 
superintendent to apportion one-third of said sum and 
one-third of the state appropriation equally to all school 
districts and the remaining two-thirds of each, of the 
amount from taxation and of the revenue of the com- 
mon school fund ($300,000 exclusive of $55,000 set apart 
for library purposes) ; to districts maintaining a school 
six months in every year, according to the number of 
school children, for the payment of teachers' wages, the 
balance, if any, necessary to support the school to be 
raised by rate bill, indigents being exempted from the 
imposition thereof. The law stated expressly that it 
did not repeal any special school acts for cities or 
villages. 

Upon the operation of this so-called free school law, 
Secretary Morgan thus comments in 1S52 : "The aver- 
age length of time during which the several schools are 
kept open during each year is eight months, or two 
terms of four months each. The aggregate amount 
paid for teachers' wages throughout the state falls a 
little short of $1,500,000, and is constantly increasing 
as teachers of a higher grade of qualification are 
brought in to the schools. For the first term of four 
months, the school may, therefore, be entirely free; in 
other words, free for one-third of the year. At the 
close of the second term, there will be a balance of 
nearly $400,000 to be collected by rate bill — an amount 
falling very little short of the sum heretofore con- 
tributed for this purpose under the act of 1847. This 
enormous balance will undoubtedly, in the great 
majority of instances, instead of being collected at the 
close of the second term, be diffused over the entire 
year — a portion only of the public money being appro- 
priated to each term. Thus every child who enters the 
school, instead of finding it free, will at the end of each 
term, be charged with a rate bill; and unless exempted 
on the ground of indigence by the trustees, his parents 
or guardians will be compelled to pay the amount so as- 
sessed with fees for collection. Is it not absolute 
mockery to term such a system free?" 
is4« a*- I* Diav not b e irrelevant to observe, in passing, that 

ciared nn- ti ie court of appeals in June, 1853 (Barto vs. Himrod, 
tfo»ai U " S N. Y. 483). declared the law of 1849 to be unconsti 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 41 

tutional and void for the reason that its validity was 
made to depend upon the result of a popular vote, a 
legislature not being able to divest itself of its respon- 
sibility for an enactment by referring it to the people 
for their determination. As Chief Justice Ruggles 
says in his opinion : " The immediate practical import- 
ance of the question has been much diminished by the 
enactment in the usual form of an act to establish free 
schools throughout the state passed April 12, 1851. To 
this statute, the objections made to the act of 1849 do 
not apply. The question is, however, still highly im- 
portant in regard to future legislation." According 
to Secretary Morgan's last annual report (1851), there """St 10 " 
were 726,291 children taught in 13,842 districts and %™?*\ re " 
parts of districts reporting, an apparent decrease of secretary 
10,192 and an increase of 3,318, respectively — these 
figures doubtless being due to imperfect returns from 
town superintendents — as compared with Secretary 
Benton's last report. The amount expended for teachers 
wages was $1 ,240 ,258.86, of which $130,949.54 was from 
rate bills. The number of volumes in the libraries was 
1,507,077. The average number of months in which the 
schools were open was a few days in excess of seven. 
|5S,8S5.91 were expended for school sites, $125,913.30 
in building schoolhouses and $79,183.55 for repairing 
the same. % 

On the first of January, 1852, Henry S. Randall, a Adminis- 
scholarly man, with previous educational experience as EenryV 
county superintendent, and who afterward achieved Randa11 
enduring reputation as the author of a life of Thomas 
Jefferson, became secretary of state. His tenure of two 
years as superintendent of common schools was not one 
of signal reform or progress, but it w?s one of eminent 
fidelity to his trust and of scrupulous discharge of its 
obligations. The issues which the friends of the free 
school had raised had found compromise, for the time 
being, in the act of 1851. They were not disposed to 
aggravate further contention, were willing to see what 
good might come from the law and the secretary was 
certainly determined to execute it in its spirit, as well 
as in its letter. The period was chiefly that of routine 
labor, but the official reports reveal a clear comprehen- 
sion of educational problems and are not lacking in 
wise suggestions. Among Mr. Randall's recommenda- 
tions, all of which were ultimately adopted, were these: 
that the normal school should be made more strictly 



■I'J. Defartwbwt ok Public Instruction 

professional than it then was, its proper object not 
being to give teachers education in the elementary 
branches, but to instruct them in the theory 
and practice of teaching; that an additional 
normal school should be built in the western 
part of the state; that a mill tax on the property 
of the state should be substituted for the fixed levy 
of $800.000 ; that the county superintendence 7 should be 
restored, or its equivalent provided ; and that the office 
of superintendent of common schools should be made 
distinct and independent, elective by the legislature 
for a definite term, experience having shown that, while 
the secretary, with the aid of a deputy, could transact 
the "regular office business, he could not add to this 
the visitation, inspection and intercourse with local 
executives and teachers, which was necessary to the 
efficient supervision of the common school system." The 
legislature having, on the 18th of June, 1853, passed 
an act which provided that union free schools, then 
being organized, in considerable numbers, should con- 
tinue to receive, for five years, the same sum from one- 
third of the public moneys divided by districts, to which 
the districts composing them would have been entitled 
had they remained unconsolidated, the secretary further 
recommended that this regulation in their favor should 
be made permanent. 

Upon the expiration, of Mr Randall's term, January 
1, 1854, the administration of the schools by the secre- 
tary of state virtually ceased, although his successor, 
Eitas w. Elias W. Leavenworth, long prominent in civic affairs 
worthlast in central New York, was in charge thereof until April 
an°d "saper- ^ when the present Department of Public Instruction 
intendeni came into being. In the history of the common schools 
of New York, under the successive secretaries of state, 
every citizen acquainted with it must take just pride. 
The incumbents were all men of a high order of intelli- 
gence, constantly striving to elevate educational stand- 
ards, to improve methods of instruction and, above all, 
Estimate to establish the free school, as against the will of re 
wor'kdone luctant taxpayers and obstructive politicians sub- 
under the ser vient to them. Effort was earnest and progress was 

secretaries * ° 

of state steady from the beginning to the end. Credit should 
be accorded to the secretaries, not alone for their gen- 
eral supervision, for plans proposed and policies pur- 
sued, but also for the personal attention they bestowed 
upo« details and minor issues concurrently with the 



A REVIEW OK ITS A D Ml N 1 RTR A TI ON 43 

onerous duties pertaining to the place, outside of the 
school department. Each one evidently appreciated 
the dignity and responsibility of his educational juris- 
diction and each uniformly signed all reports and 
documents relating to the schools as superintendent, 
rather than as secretary. For the first twenty years, 
a clerk was sufficient for the routine work of the office, 
but, at their close, it had assumed such proportions that 
expert service was demanded for the relief of the secre- 
tary and he was allowed a general deputy. This posi- 
tion was filled by the following persons: Samuel S. 
Randall from July 12, 1841, to October 1, 1846; Samuel 
L. Holmes to February 1, 1848; Alexander G. Johnson 
to December 8, 1849 ; Samuel S. Randall to January 1, 
1852; Henry W. Johnson to January 2, 1854, and 
Samuel S. Randall for the remainder of the time. All samnei s. 
seem to have been well qualified for the place, but Mr a^mVy 11 *"- 
Randall was eminently so. He was a trained statis . perintemi- 
tician, as well as a competent educator; and it is evi- 
dent that the secretaries, under whom he was appointed, 
relied largely upon his industry, knowledge and judg- 
ment and that much of the matter, if not all of the 
exact expression, embodied in their reports, was pre- 
pared by him. In 1851, he was, in very complimentary 
terms, nominated by Governor Hunt a commissioner 
" to embody in a single act a common school code for 
the state of New York," and he was the author of an 
exhaustive and accurate history of the common school 
system of the state from 1795 to 1851, which is the 
accepted authority thereon and to which this review is 
deeply indebted for many facts and conclusions. He 
finished his educational career as superintendent of 
the schools of New York city. 

During the last year of the secretary's administration 
12,469,248.52 were expended for the schools, of which 
$1,931,870.18 were for teachers' wages, $98,990.78, 
including local appropriations, for the libraries 
and $308,895.65 for purchasing school sites and ™^ Jj"* f 
buildings, hiring and repairing schoolhouses. The Secretary 
amount expended was made up from the incomes of 
the common school and United States deposit funds, 
from state and local taxes and from rate bills, the 
last named of which yielded $346,262.60, including 
taxes for the indigent exempt and deficiencies. The 
volumes in the libraries were 1,604,210. The principal 
of the common school fund was $2,383,257.23. The 



Department of Publtc Instruction 



Tlie office 
of state 
superin- 
tendent of 
public in- 
struction 
created 



number of school districts and parts of districts was 
14,780, the average number of months in which the 
schools were kept open was 7 7-10 and the children 
taught were 860,935. And so, with a fair measure of 
efficiency, with much that was worthy of the state 
wrought out, but with certain important reforms yet 
to be accomplished — notably, the reinstatement of an 
official intermediate between the districts and the de- 
partment, the annulling of rate bills and adequate pro- 
vision for the education of teachers — the schools passed 
into the hands of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion and a new educational era began. 

The act creating the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction was within the compass of a few 
linos, but it conferred upon him ample powers and 
endowed the office with a dignity and authority that 
it could never have obtained as an adjunct of the de- 
partment of state. It made it an independent bureau 
of the government, of like rank with that of finan e, 
law, or public works, as the vital interests of popular 
education entitled it to be so considered. It, was the 
solemn, legal affirmation of the commonwealth to that 
effect. It was a return to the order of 1813, which 
political resentments had unfortunately overthrown, 
with a jurisdiction vastly enlarged over that of the 
earlier time; and it was enacted in the faith that the 
individuals, who should be called to administer it, 
would be, if not of greater menial gifts than the secre- 
taries of state, especially adapted to its requirements by 
previous training and identification with the reaching 
profession; and this faith has been justified, nearly all 
the superintendents either having been teachers or 
having held an important educational position prior to 
their election. The act provided that there should be 
chosen by joint ballot of the senate and assembly a 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, for a term 
of three years, who should be invested with all the 
powers, perform all the duties and be subject to all 
the responsibilities previously conferred or imposed 
upon the secretary of state, in his capacity of superin- 
tendent of common schools. It was directed that suit- 
able and convenient rooms should be assigned him in 
the state hall to which all books, papers and documents 
then in the office of the secretary of state and pertain- 
ing to the common school department should be trans- 
ferred. His salary was fixed at $2,500. subsequently 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 45 

increased to f 5,000, and he was given power to appoint 
a deputy and three clerks, whose aggregate compensa- 
tion should not exceed $3,000. He was to devise a seal 
by which his official acts, orders and decisions should 
be authenticated. It was made his duty to visit, as 
often as practicable, such and so many of the common 
schools, academies and other literary institutions of the 
state as he might deem expedient; to inquire into the 
course of instruction, management and discipline of 
such institutions, and to report the results of his visi- 
tation and inspection annually to the legislature, with 
such recommendations and suggestions as he should 
deem suitable; and he was made ex officio a member of 
the board of regents and chairman of the executive 
committee of the state normal school. 

The first superintendent of public instruction, Victor Adinini8 _ 
M. Rice, who had been in charge of the public schools * r:ttio ." of 
of Buffalo for several years, was admirably qualified by tendent 
experience and knowledge of the needs of the schools 
for inagurating the new regime. He was enthusiastic 
in his work and of remarkable energy in its prosecu- 
tion, of which there is no more striking illustration than 
the vigorous warfare he waged for more than a decade 
for the abolition of the rate bill and in which, in his 
third term, he triumphed. His firet annual report, of 
date December 31, 1854, exhibits, upon the whole, a 
gratifying condition of the schools private (concerning 
which he took the pains to collect statistics) and pub- 
lic. The number of districts reported by the town 
superintendents was 11,798, an increase over the preced- 
ing year of 111; the number of children taught in the 
public schools was 877,201 ; the number attending the 
1,501 private schools was 34,279 ; the number in the 30 
schools for colored children was 4,568; add, adding the 
number attending academies, the total attendance in 
the state was 953,454. It was estimated that a frac- 
tion less than 20 per cent, of those of school age at- 
tended no school. The schools were kept open and 
taught by qualified teachers for an average period of 
eight months. There were 109 state beneficiaries in the 
New York institution for the blind and 204 in that for 
the deaf and dumb. The following table, incorporated 
in the report of 1855, presents the financial statement 
for 1854 : 



46 Department of Public Instruction 

The amount of public money received by the trustees 
of school districts and boards of education was : 

For teachers' wages $1, 173,073 83 

For libraries 55,216 31 

Amount raised by tax for teachers' 
wages (including board) in city, vil- 
lage and union free schools which are 

without rate bills 691,687 94 

Raised by rate bills 382,359 08 

Raised by tax for tuition of children 
exempted from rate bills and for defi- 
ciencies in collection of rate bills. . . . 41,948 16 
Paid for teachers' wages in colored 

schools, besides public money 2,393 25 

Raised for purchasing sites for school- 
houses 86,950 83 

Raised for purchasing or building 

schoolhouses, fences, etc 404,061 63 

Raised for hiring schoolhouses 14,885 14 

Raised for repairing fences and out- 
buildings 136,219 97 

Raised for insuring 4,548 74 

Raised for purchasing fnel and building 

fires . 110,802 45 

Raised for purchasing bookcases and 

school furniture 16,130 92 

Raised for other incidental expenses. . 96,420 84 

$3,216,669 09 



»"i!oois Pee ^ lie superintendent states that the act for the estab- 
lishment of union free schools is exerting a very bene- 
ficial influence and that not only is their general adop- 
tion probable, as being decidedly preferable to the sys- 
tem of collection by rate bill, but that universal free 
schools will result from the application of the law. In- 
asmuch as his opinion proved to be well founded, and 
these schools not only fulfilled his predictions but also 
fortified the sentiment that secondary education was 
within the purview of the state rather than within that 
of the voluntary principle solely and because, as means 
to that end, they gradually but surely supplanted the 
academies, many of which were resolved into or became 
departments of them, a recapitulation of the main 
features of the law of 1853 is here pertinent. It pro- 
vided that if, at a meeting of a school district, or <ii 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 47 

one of adjoining districts, duly called, where at least 
one-third of the inhabitants qualified to vole on school 
matters were present and two-thirds of the same should 
decide to establish a union free school, that then they 
should elect not less than three nor more than nine 
trustees to be divided into three classes, to hold office 
respectively for one, two and three years, the said trus- 
tees and their successors to constitute a board of edu- 
cation; that the corporate authorities of any incor- 
porated village or city, in which a union free school 
should be established, should have power to raise from 
time to time, by tax, such sums as the board of educa- 
tion should declare necessary for the furtherance of 
any of the powers vested in them, with the proviso that 
the said corporate authorities should have power to 
refuse, for one year, any supplies other than those for 
the annual support of the teachers of said union free 
school and the necessary contingent expenses of said 
schools; that consolidated districts, entitled to public 
moneys under the law of 1S51, should receive the same 
amount as would have been apportioned to them, if 
they had not been consolidated ; that boards of educa- 
tion should have in all respects the superintendence, 
management and control of union free schools and 
establish in the same academical departments, when- 
ever in their judgment the same should be warranted 
by the demand for such instruction to receive into them 
non-resident pupils, regulating the tuition fees of such 
in all departments and those of resident pupils pur- 
suing academic courses, to regulate the transfer of 
scholars from the primary to the academical depart- 
ments and from class to class; to employ teachers and 
prescribe textbooks and generally to exercise the func- 
tions usually pertaining to officers of their character; 
and that every academical department should be under 
the visitation of the board of regents and subject to its 
course of instruction and to the rules made in regard to 
academies by the said board, but not in reference to the 
buildings in which the same is held, unless in cases 
where they should be separate from those of the com- 
mon school department — the latter provision in its per- 
missive dual jurisdiction being a grave error of judg- 
ment by the legislature which has been provocative of 
considerable friction between the two great educational 
authorities of the state and more or less detrimental 
to the schools. The law thus outlined has not been 



is 



Department of Public Instruction 



Other 

rt'< iiiiph 

tlutions of 
Sniierin- 
(enilent 
Rice 



Tlie prog- 
ress m:nl<» 
l>y the 
schools of 
the cities 



materially modified since its original passage, the most 
radical changes being the relief from tuition fees of 
resident pupils in academical departments and the mak- 
ing of tuition of nonresident pupils a state charge in 
1903, 

Among other recommedations embraced in Superin- 
tendents Rice's first report were these: That district 
school meetings should be held at a certain fixed and 
uniform time; that there should , be a reduction of 
local school officers; and, especially in line with the 
views of his predecessors, that county superintendents 
should be replaced in the school system, quoting, in this 
connection, among those of several prominent educa- 
tors, the words of Henry Barnard, in 1S45, who said : 
"I have watched the progressive improvement in the 
organization and the administration of the school sys- 
tem of this (New York) great state, with intense in- 
terest, and I regard it at this time as superior to any 
other of which I have any knowledge. But the most 
admirable feature in your school system is the pro- 
vision for county superintendents. There is nothing to 
be compared to this in the school system of any other 
state. There is nothing in all the wise legislation of 
your state in regard to public instruction unless, per- 
haps, the liberal appropriation for district libraries, 
wdiich the friends of public education elsewhere are so 
anxious to see adopted into the school system of their 
respective states." 

As indicative of the standing the schools of the cities 
had attained, the following extracts from Superintend- 
ent Rice's second annual report, is taken : " The cities 
have been especially favored by legislation. Their 
schools are as free to every child as the air he breathes. 
It is their mission to give a practical education alike 
to the rich and the poor; and they are fulfilling it in a 
manner creditable to their particular localities and to 
the state. Thousands of parents have been induced to 
remove from the rural districts for the purpose of edu- 
cating their children in these schools. With one or 
two exceptions, they are under a complete and thorough 
supervision, which points out the most approved modes 
of school architecture, secures competent teachers, and 
incorporates into their plans of instruction every im- 
provement of the day. How long the children of the 
cities shall enjoy privileges so much superior to those 
in other parts of the state remains for the legislature 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 49 

to determine. I have visited with their superin- 
tendents some of the principal schools of New York and 
Brooklyn, and have seen great multitudes of children 
and youth congregated therein fitting themselves for 
independence and extensive usefulness; some of whom, 
were it not for the liberal provision for schools, would 
be educated in the streets. Tax payers have long since 
learned that they cannot afford to encourage the edu- 
cation there acquired. Buffalo, Oswego, Rochester, 
Syracuse, Auburn, Utica and other cities, are attracting 
the wealth and intelligence of less favored portions of 
the state in consequence of their excellent schools." 
What may be called the beginning of compulsory educa- 
tion in the state had been made by the law of 1853, by 
which the municipalities were required to provide 
industrial schools for children roaming the streets, but 
its enforcement was attempted only in Rochester. 

The last year of Superintendent Rice's first adminis- school 
tration was signalized by the passage of two salutary sioneVs" 
acts. The one, already alluded to, essential to the creMte « l 
orderly supervision of the schools, was that by which 
the office of commissioner was ordained, — the outcome 
of an arduous battle against prejudice and parsimony. 
The other was that levying a state tax of three-quarters ti.o ti«-ee- 
of a mill upon the dollar in lieu of the imposition of S'miu *»"* 
the gross sum of $S00,000— a bridge which the schools 
traversed to the goal of freedom — resulting in 1857 in 
the receipt of $1,073,768.97, a gain of $273,768.97, while 
there was a diminution in rate bills from $161,779.13 
in 1856 to $127,956.07. From the report of 1856, it is 
learned that the principal of the common school fund 
was $2,491,916.14. The total expenditures of the 
schools for the preceding year were $3,544,587.62. For 
teachers' wages $1,051,210.47 came from the state tax; 
the amount from local taxes for city, village and union 
free schools, where rate bills were dispensed with, was 
$730,674.2S; the cost of schoolhouse sites was $57,- 
839.15; of building schoolhouses, fences, etc., $381,- 
101.88; of hiring schoolhouses $17,568.69; of repairs to 
houses, fences and out-buildings $169,555.98; of book- 
cases and furniture $50,781.97; and of libraries $50,- 
801.50. Among the recommendations of Superintend- 
ent Rice were the establishment of more normal schools; 
a more liberal appropriation for teachers' institutes; 
the naming of a uniform day for the holding of the 
annual district meetings and the conforming of the 
4 



tendent 
Van Dyclc 



50 Dbpartment of I'unuc Instruction • 

school year, to which (he additional returns of the dis- 
trict relate, to the fiscal year of the state, the last two 
recommendations being incorporated in chapter 151 of 
the laws of 1858 by which it was enjoined that the 
school year should begin on the first day of October and 
end on the thirtieth day of September, and the annual 
school meeting in each district should be held on the 
second Tuesday of October. 
Admits- Henry H. Van Dyck, who became superintendent 
snperin- ' April 7, 1857, was a man of exact methods, and among 
the first things he accomplished was a reform in the 
bookkeeping of the Department. Having found that 
the amount raised for school purposes, in 1855, was 
apparently $221,537.64 in excess of that of 1856, and 
having also noted other discrepancies in the records, he 
concluded that the blank office forms were so con- 
structed as to make it probable that some items of 
expenditure were embraced under different headings, 
so as to be doubled or trebled. Thus he made a change 
in the blanks that led to a directness of statement that 
precluded unintelligible duplications or careless omis- 
sions; and, so far as he could, he compelled accuracy in 
the reports of subordinate officers, in which, as he says, 
he was assisted materially by the new scheme of local 
supervision — the commissioners. It is well to state 
here that, in the preparation of this review, difficulty 
has been experienced in the examination of figures, 
from the reports of town superintendents, often mani- 
festly inaccurate and insufficient, and, sometimes, even 
baffling. The attempt has been made throughout to 
adjust and reconcile these, with, it is hoped, some 
measure of success, and with results substantially cor- 
rect, but, whatever errors have occurred, they are not 
likely to be repeated in further details, and this largely 
owing to the forms introduced by Superintendent Van 
Djck. Otherwise, his administration was not marked 
by radical departures either in methods or policies. He 
was not disposed to suggest alterations in the laws 
beyond certain simple amendments obviously neces- 
sary to the public convenience, preferring rather to 
realize the good possible under existing statutes than 
to experiment with new ones. He contended that the 
school system was not so much wanting in the facilities 
for imparting instruction as in the indisposition of a 
considerable portion of the population to utilize those 
already available. He did not believe that compulsory 



A ItEVlEW or ITS ADMINISTRATION f» 1 

education could be enforced, but be t bought 1be desired 
end could be promoted by a discrimination in the appli- 
cation of state funds founded on the proportional num- 
ber in actual attendance, upon the theory that such a 
provision would give to each taxpayer a direct 
pecuniary interest in securing the largest possible at- 
tendance upon the schools, both as a means of securing 
a larger share of the state bounty and as reducing local 
taxation. The distribution of funds, which the super- 
intendent thus inferentially criticised, was that of two- 
thirds of the public money to a district, according to 
the number of persons between the years of four and 
twenty-one. In his report for 1859 (the last of his La«t re- 
first term) Superintendent Van Dyck presents the fob van Dyou-. 
lowing financial summary : *"* term 

Receipts Cities Rural districts 

Balance on hand October 

1, 1858 ^332,314 01 $90,607 53 

Amount received from 

moneys apportioned by 

state "superintendent... 378,416 45 944,266 88 

Proceeds of gospel and 

school lands 177 96 19,206 68 

Amount raised by district 

taxes 1,402,282 56 619,180 49 

Amount raised by rate 

bills 414,062 72 

Amount received from all 

other sources 9,618 59 46,609 21 

Totals $2,122,810 57 $2,033,933 51 

Total in cities 2,122,810 57 

Total in state $4,156,744 08 

Payments. 

For teachers' wages $961,395 14 $1,481,989 66 

Libraries 9,583 58 28,778 00 

School apparatus 111,118 40 6,846 39 

Colored schools 20,766 42 3,597 58 

Expenses of schoolhouses, 
viz. : sites, buildings, hir- 
ing, purchasing, repair- 
ing and insuring, fences, 
outhouses, furniture, etc 440,961 75 283,330 72 



52 Department of Public Instruction 

Receipts Cities Rural districts 

All other incidental ex- 
penses $164,422 27 $152,027 66 

Amount on hand October 

1, 1859 414,563 01 77,563 50 



Totals $2,122,810 57 $2,033,933 51 

Total in cities 2,122,810 57 

Total in state $4,156,744 08 



Subtracting the amount on hand October 1, 1859, the 
actual payments for school purposes during the twelve 
months preceding were $3,644,617.57 — a liberality of ex- 
penditure, as the superintendent observes, that indi- 
cates unmistakably the deep interest felt by our citizens 
in the cause of education. 
\<imiiiis- Superintendent Van Dyck was reelected in 1S60, but 
su^eri"- * resigned in 1861, being succeeded by Emerson W. Keyes, 
Keye" f on tne 9tn of April, who served until February 1, 1862. 
The only report, that for 1861, made by Superintendent 
Keyes, is a valuable document, setting forth fully the 
condition of the schools, with suggestions for their 
betterment. He notes the steady improvement in the 
character of the schoolhouses, comparing it with those 
of former years ; thus, in 1857, there were 333 log, 9,747 
frame, 876 brick and 610 stone houses in a total of 
11,566; and, in 1S61, 246 log, 9,747 frame, 971 
brick and 610 stone in a total of 11,697. He lays 
stress upon the superiority of the city schools, 
which maintain ample educational facilities of a high 
order, for all the children within their limits, "with- 
out money and without price," and in which " oppor- 
tunity is afforded for a better classification and for a 
more natural and progressive course of study," and 
the schools being in session the entire year, except 
during brief vacations, competent teachers are secured 
and the evils of frequent changes avoided. Many of 
the villages, he adds, are nearly upon the same basis 
as the cities through the agency of special acts, or that 
of the union free school law; and, in this connec- 
tion, he strenuously advocates the consolidation of 
rural districts, wherever possible, as tending to greater 
efficiency through the classification of pupils. He 
states that the work of the teachers' institutes for 
the year has been most gratifying; that they had been 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 53 

held in 47 counties with 7,488 teachers in attendance, 
being an average per county of 159^ and recommends 
that the commissioner be empowered to make such a 
distinction between those who attend the institute and 
those who do not as to cause attendance to be morally 
compulsory. It was subsequently made wholly com- 
pulsory. He eulogizes the existing system of school 
supervision and says that it is rapidly growing in 
popular favor and esteem. He calls the attention of 
the legislature to a number of points in which the 
department has found the school laws and the power 
to administer them extremely defective; among these 
are the option of a sole trustee to engage a teacher, 
whose labors are to be performed after such trustee 
shall have vacated his office; the practice of trustees 
hiring relatives as teachers; the restriction of districts 
to a tax of only $400 without the consent of the com- 
missioners and the apportionmeut of school moneys 
upon the number of resident pupils in the district 
instead of upon the aggregate attendance for six 
months. Remedies for most of the evils mentioned by 
the superintendent were afterward "applied. The finan- 
cial statement shows that the receipts and expenditures 
for the year were in cities $2,403,189.79 and in the 
rural districts $992,197.56, a total of $4,395,387.35; 
deducting the amount on hand ($554,116.54) October 
1, 1861, and there remains as the total expenditure 
for the schools during the year, exclusive of the cost 
of supervision, the sum of $3,841,270.81, an increase 
of the cost of the schools over that of the last year of 
Superintendent Van Dyck's first term of $196,653.24. 

On the first of February, 1862, Victor M. Rice again second 

„ ' ,. . . , to adminis- 

became superintendent of public instruction and, being tration of 
reelected in 1865, served until April 7, 1868. In his Rice" 
report, dated January 1, 1863, he refers to certain 
amendments to the school laws, which he had proposed 
in 1854, and points, not without just pride, to the sub- 
sequent adoption of a majority of these. His words 
may well be quoted, although something of repetition 
is thereby involved, as a succinct statement of desir- 
able changes made, mainly at his instigation. He says : Recom- 
" Of these recommendations, those relating to the time lions"^ 
of holding the annual meetings, the termination of t he tenallu" 
school year, the reporting of statistics directly to this Rice 
department, the change in the basis of the one-third 
apportionment, the abolition of the office of town super- 



54 Dejpabtmbnt or Public Instruction 

intendent and the election of school commissioners, 
the separation of the financial part of the system from 
that of supervision by authorizing the supervisors to 
receive and disburse the school moneys, the increase 
of the state tax to three-fourths of a mill on each 
dollar of valuation, the reduction of school district 
officers by electing one instead of three trustees, the 
gradation of teachers' certificates, the education of the 
Indians, and the encouragement and more liberal sup- 
port of teachers' institutes, have since been approved 
by successive legislatures and carried into effect. Of 
the beneficial results of the change in the system of 
state taxation, of the appointment of the super- 
visors as intelligent and trustworthy custodians of the 
school moneys, of the election and compensation of 
school commissioners, of the provision for the educa- 
tion of the Indians, and of the encouragement of 
teachers'" institutes, the undersigned has hereinbefore 
spoken. It needs only to be added here that in the finan- 
cial and statistical reports to this department order 
has been brought out of confusion ; and the number 
of alterations of school districts, out of which grew 
innumerable appeals to this department and much 
costly litigation in the courts, has been greatly reduced 
since the power to make such alterations was taken from 
a thousand hands and given to a hundred and twelve. 
The desired reduction in the number of school officers 
has not heen fully effected, though a very large number 
of districts have adopted the policy of one trustee, 
and the propriety of the reduction from three to one 
is gaining favor among the people. The changes noted 
have tended to harmonize, simplify and vitalize the 
working of the school system." In Mr. Rice's report 
for 1862, the reports of commissioners are first incor- 
porated in full, the superintendent having previously 
published only the bare statistics collated by them. 
Ninety-one of the 112 commissioners and five of the 13 
city superintendents made reports thus published, fur- 
nishing various and valuable information, not alone ser- 
viceable to the superintendent, but of interest to the 
public as well. Succeeding superintendents have fol- 
lowed the practice of Mr. Rice, in this respect. 
oawetco On the 4th of May, 1863, an act was passed for 

sci™'.." 1 tne 8u PP 01 *t °f a training school for primary teachers, 
in Oswego, subsequently resolved into a normal school. 
It appropriated $3,000 annually for two years, for the 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 55 

purpose indicated, if the city should within one year 
provide the necessary buildings, grounds and other 
accommodations and appliances for such school as 
directed by the superintendent of public instruction, 
and provided further that there should be instructed 
in said school, for a period of at least 40 weeks in 
each year, not less than 50 persons designing to teach 
in the common schools. Each senatorial district was 
entitled to send annually to said training school two 
first class teachers, each to be appointed by the super- 
intendent of public instruction, upon the recommenda- 
tion of two school commissioners, or by a citv super- 
intendent, residing in the district from which the 
appointment was to be made; and all teachers thus 
appointed were to receive free instruction and train- 
ing. The school was made subject to the supervision 
and general jurisdiction of the superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction, the board of education and its secretary 
constituting an executive committee for the immediate 
care, management and government of the school. 

As the second normal school was founded in 1863, J^f,^""" 1 
and the wisdom of the policy of establishing others, is«:t 
as outlined in the Hulburd report of 1844, was gener- 
ally appreciated and was soon to be realized, it is 
pertinent to note what New York was doing for the 
education of the teachers in the year indicated. The 
Albany normal school had been in existence for nearly 
19 years, and was in a flourishing state. It had in- 
structed 3,854 pupils, for longer or shorter periods, 
of whom it had graduated 1,313. During the school 
year ending in the summer of 1862, there had been in 
attendance 293, of whom 99 were males and 191 
females. Its graduates for the year were 22 males and 
32 females, thirty counties being represented in the 
class. Connected with the school were experimental 
and model primary departments under the superin- 
tendence of excellent teachers. There were 98 acad- 
emies, designated by the regents, each being allotted 
f 10 for each scholar, not to exceed 20 to each academy, 
for instruction in the theory and practice of teaching. 
The average amount which had thus been expended 
annually, under authority of various acts — the last act, 
amendatory of those preceding it, being of date April 13, 
1855— was $16,68010-13 for a period of 13 academic 
years, and the average number annually taught, for 
a period of about 14 weeks, had been 1,595 813. " It 



50 Department of Public Instruction 

is conceded " says Superintendent Rice " that this is 
not the most economical or efficient agency for the 
preparation of teachers, but so long as the legislature 
shall fail to increase the number of normal schools 
and the appropriation for the support of teachers' 
institutes, and so long as all the agencies in operation 
for the preparation of teachers shall be so inadequate to 
the urgent demand of the common schools, as they have 
heretofore been and are now, this appropriation may 
be properly continued." The superintendent speaks 
in the warmest terms of the success of teachers' 
institutes, both as inspirational and as the means, 
within their limitations, of imparting practical instruc- 
tion. He believes, however, that they may be much 
improved and entertains the opinion that the time of 
holding them should be so distributed in the several 
counties that a corps of the ablest and most accom- 
plished educators might be employed in going from 
place to place and benefiting all, his opinion, in due 
time, becoming fact. In 1862, 02 institutes were held 
in 52 counties, each lasting ten days or more, at an 
expense to the state of $8,665.16, an average per county 
of 1160.035. 9,411 teachers, an average per county of 
181|, were present, the expense per teacher being 
91f cents. 
Last an- Salient features of the last annuo 1 report of the 

mini report 

of the second term of Superintendent Rice (1804) are the 

term"of statements that the number of free schools reported 
tenrten"" is 603, including union free schools and the city and 
itice other schools made free by special acts; a part of the 

school moneys, in accordance with recent legislation, 
had been apportioned to the districts upon the basis 
of average daily attendance, thus largely increasing 
the number of pupils and the regularity of their pres- 
ence; the proportion of female teachers now being 
nine-tenths of the whole had increased; I lie New York 
Asylum for Idiots had been added to the charitable 
institutions receiving state pupils; and there was 
urgent need for more normal and training schools. 
The consolidated school act of .May 2. 1864, is alluded 
to as imparting harmony and efficiency to the working 
of the school system; and the superintendent concludes 
by expressing his gratification that the evidences of 
an increasing solicitude for the proper instruction of 
the young are accumulating in all parts of the state 
and that the people have not remitted any of their 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 



interest in the schools even amid their efforts to save 
the life of the republic. Following the plan heretofore 
pursued, the following statistical and financial reports 
for the year ending September 30, 1S64, are here 
tabulated : 

Statistical 

Rural 

Cities districts Total 

Number of districts 285 11,432 11,717 

Number of teachers employed at the same 

time for six months or more 3,408 12,399 15,807 

Number of children between 5 and 21 years 

of age '. 447,469 860.353 1,307,822 

Aggregate number of months' school 132 83,969 SI. 101 

Number of male teachers employed 338 5,569 5.707 

Number of female teachers employed 3.474 17.707 21,181 

Number of children attending- school 293,265 587,919 881,184 

Number of times schools visited by com- 
missioners 16.67S 16,678 

Number of volumes in district libraries 89,446 1,035,992 1,125,438 

Number of schoolhouses 285 11,427 11,712 

Number of log 226 226 

Number of frame 47 9,S74 9,941 

Number of brick 236 766 1,002 

Number of stone 2 541 543 

Financial 

Rural 

Cities districts Total 

Amount on hand October 1, 1S62. $155,505 51 $81,214 94 $536,711 45 

Apport onment of public moneys 437,690 71 922,426 76 1,360,117 47 
Proceeds of gospel and school 

lands 123 67 18,28S 90 18.412 57 

Raised by tax 1,993,479 67 674,599 62 2,668,079 29 

Raised by rate bill 429.812 52 429.S92 52 

From all other sources 14.5S6 12 41,445 87 56.03199 

Totals $2,901,38168 $2,107,863 61 $5,063,250 29 

Expenditures 

Rural 

Cities districts Total 

For teachers' wages $1,554,212 18 $1,539,248 28 $3,093,460 46 

For libraries 5,40)25 21,48126 .26,890 51 

For school apparatus 129.417 79 S, 165 70 137,613 49 

For colored schools 24,60188 5,866 45 30,468 33 

For schoolhouses. sites, etc 370,815 34 276.4S5 S9 647.3J1 23 

For all other incidental expenses 392.959 92 221,076 72 614,036 64 

Amount on hand October 1, 1864. 423.935 32 95,544 31 519,479 63 

Totals $2,901,381 6S $2,167,868 61 $5,069,250 29 

Deducting from this total the amount on hand Octo- 
ber 1, 1S64, the actual expense of maintaining the 
schools during the year was $4,549,870.06. The amount 
expended in 1853, the last year of the secretary of 
state's administration was $2*469,248.52. The schools, 
therefore, were costing $2,140,622.14 more, or nearly 
twice as much as they cost eleven years previously. 
Measured merely by the money standard they were a 
great institution. The third term of Superintendent 
Rice was a season of planting, from which the harvest 
was soon gathered. His reports contained many recom- 
mendations, nearly all of which were approved by the 



Reeom- 
m e ml a - 
tions by 
Superin- 
tendent 
Rice 



58 Department op Public Instruction 

legislature, that body seeming to have obeyed his 
prompting almost implicitly. Some of these recom- 
mendations, with the action had thereon, are herewith 
cited : 

I. That the general state tax for the support of 
schools be increased by the addition of one-half of a mill 
on every dollar, for the purpose of diminishing local or 
school district taxation for the same purpose (18G7). 
The tax was increased precisely by the percentage pro- 
posed — to one and a quarter mills — by chapter 406 of 
the laws of 1867. 

II. That a commission be appointed to locate three 
or more normal and training schools for the special 
preparation of teachers, in such eligible places as shall 
offer the greatest inducements by way of building, 
school apparatus, etc., and that an appropriation be 
made for their efficient support (1866) ; that the com- 
mission created by chapter 466 of the laws of 1866 
be continued and authorized in their discretion to 
locate six additional normal schools, upon the terms 
and conditions prescribed in that act (1867). In 1866 
such a commission was constituted and, under its 
auspices, the schools at Cortland, Fredonia and Pots- 
dam were, as already stated, founded in 1866 and those 
at Geneseo, Brockport and Buffalo in 1867, local con- 
tributions being freely made for sites, buildings, etc., 
in each case. They were opened in the following order : 
Brockport, 1867; Fredonia, 1868; Cortland and Pots- 
dam, 1869 ; Buffalo and Geneseo, 1871. 

III. That provision be made by which the salary 
attached to the office of school commissioner shall be 
increased (1866 and 1867). In 1867, this salary was 
raised to $800 a year payable out of the United States 
deposit fund, " an act of simple justice," as Superin- 
tendent Rice says, " to a class of officers wbo, with 
very few exceptions, have proved themselves capable, 
industrious and conscientious in the discharge of im- 
portant public duties." 

Abolition jy That the general school laws be so amended that 

of toe ruic ° 

i>iii the odious rate bill shall no longer prevent children 

from going to school; that the schools shall be as free 
to all of proper age and condition as the air and sun- 
light. ( Inferentially in all the Rice reports and speci- 
fically in 1865, '66 and* '67.) This too came to pass 
and that during the official life of its author. By the 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADM INISTKATION 59 

same law, taking effect October 1, 1867, that increased 
state taxation for the schools, they became free in fact, 
as well as in name, throughout the state, as they had 
been, for years, in the cities. The rate bill was abol- 
ished. This was a glorious consummation. The blot 
upon the 'scutcheon was effaced. The principle that 
the property of the state should educate the children 
of the state was vindicated. The doors of the common 
school were opened wide; all could enter upon equal 
terms; there would be no further exemptions as the 
stigma of the indigent and no further burdens to make 
up deficiencies for the well-to-do to bear. The schools 
were democratized. The free school was, above all else, 
the affirmation of a principle of republican government, 
a basal principal of a commonwealth, long apprehended 
by statesmanship and expressed by the municipalities, 
yet long waiting for full legal recognition. As such, 
the statute of 1867 is to be commemorated in educa- 
tional annals, and, credit is to be accorded to those 
who were instrumental in securing it, and conspicu- 
ously to Victor M. Rice who, as the head of the common 
school system, was its consistent champion and tireless 
promoter. But, aside from the principle, the law 
immediately proved its utility. Within four months 
from the time it became operative, Superintendent 
Rice was able to say that it was meeting the most 
sanguine hopes of its advocates ; "Already " he adds 
" the local school officers report an average daily 
attendance of pupils at the schools twenty to thirty- 
five per cent greater than it was during the same 
period of the year previous. In many districts, and 
particularly w r here there is a large proportion of foreign 
born population, it has been found necessary to in- 
crease the accommodations, from this cause." He also 
refers to the continued beneficial effects of the union 
free school act of 1853 in contributing to the establish- 
ment and maintenance of a superior class of graded 
schools, claiming that in range and quality of in- 
struction they compare favorably with the best acad- 
emies which, in many localities, they are supplanting. 
About eighty of some 300 chartered academies had at 
this time been absorbed in the union free schools. The 
following table — a comparison of the condition of these 
schools at the time they were made free with that at 
the time report* therefrom were collected by the super- 



(50 Department of Public Instruction 

intendent — shows something of the progress they bad 

made: 

Average increase of the time of main- 
taining schools per year 9.4 per cent 

Aggregate increase of the number of 
teachers employed 2S weeks or longer 
per year 88 " 

Aggregate increase of the amount paid 

for teachers' wages per year 141 " " 

Aggregate increase of compensation to 

each teacher per year 28 " " 

Aggregate increase of the number of 

children of school age 32 " " 

Aggregate increase of the daily attend- 
ance of pupils at school 74 " " 

Aggregate increase of values of school- 
houses and sites 178 " " 



Prior to their organization as union free school dis- 
tricts, there was an absence of comfortable housings, 
qualified teachers were hard to obtain because it was 
hard to pay them, the schools were not graded aud rate 
bills repelled the children of the poor and parsimo- 
nious; but, as organized, the children crowded the 
schools and, the interest of the inhabitants being- 
quickened, ampler provision for schoolhouses and com- 
petent teachers was made. Inasmuch as the new free 
school law had but just gone into effect, full statistics 
are here omitted and comparisons will be made further 
cost ot on. Let it suffice to state that at the close of the last 
lios£ot* school year of Superintendent Rice's third term, the 
Sinistra, schools were costing $7,683,201.22 as against $4,549,- 
tion 870.76 at the close of that of his second term — an 

increase of $3,133,330.56. 
a n minis- On the 7th of April, 1868, Abram B. Weaver, a 
V'uranrB* graduate of Hamilton college, who had been a school 
weaver commissioner in Oneida county and a member of 
assembly, became superintendent of public instruction. 
He brought to the place experience in the schools and 
was especially intelligent in devising measures for their 
improvement. His reports were able and luminous 
and his capacity for administration was manifest 
throughout. It was his privilege to be the first execu- 
tive of the free school law, for Superintendent Rice 
was but permitted to start the machinery, which his 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION Gl 

successors operated. Mr. Weaver's first annual report 
(1869) revealed the satisfaction he felt in his work 
and his reflections thereon fitly supplement the antici- 
pations of his predecessors. He says : " The cause of 
public instruction, during the last fiscal year, has operation 

* of tlio t"re<? 

wrought results unequaled in all the past, and which, school 
if they correctly denote a corresponding growth in the 
popular estimate of the value and advantages of our 
public schools, mark the beginning of a new and more 
auspicious era in the department of the educational 
system of the state. The effect of this amendment lias 
not been confined to the financial policy thereby inaugu- 
rated. It is distinctly traceable in lengthened terms 
of school, in a larger and more uniform attendance, 
and in more liberal expenditures for school buildings 
and appliances. We are now enabled to study the 
influence of this measure for the first year of its opera- 
tion, and to judge of its merits in the light of a limited 
experience. The liberal and progressive spirit that 
authorized it will not fail to watch its workings with 
unabated interest. The state is fully committed to the 
policy of providing for all the children within its limits 
the opportunity to acquire at least a sound elementary 
education, sufficient for the duties of good citizenship 
and for personal usefulness. This comprehensive plan 
is not entirely new. It is the natural outgrowth and 
development of the original enterprise initiated by 
establishing common schools in 1812. With the excep- 
tion of a brief period under the operation of the free 
school law of 18-19, which was declared unconstitu- 
tional by the courts on account of its conditional enact- 
ment, the system as organized and conducted prior to 
the late change, though efficient as could well be ex- 
pected under conditions then existing, and entitled to 
lasting gratitude and respect for the good it has 
accomplished, never completely compassed the prin- 
ciples upon which it rested." The following compara- 
tive figures will show the impulse the schools received 
in a single year: 

Statistical 

1867 1868 

Number of districts 11,722 11,736 

Number of male teachers 5,271 5,918 

Number of female teachers 21.218 21,S65 

Number of children attending 
school 949,203 970,84-2 



62 DiEFA&TM£NT OF PUBLJC INSTRUCTION 

1867 1868 

Average daily attendance 419,957 445,868 

Visitations by commissioners 16,685 18,963 

Aggregate number of schoolhouses. 11,556 11,674 

Financial 

1S67 1868 
Apportionment of public 

moneys $1,403,321 64 $2,302,515 Til 

Raised by tax 5,101,754 53 6,338,801 77 

Raised by rate bill 743,047 73 

Proceeds of gospel and 

school lands 26,009 24 23,134 62 

Paid for teachers' wages.. 4,826,471 64 5,597,506 94 

Paid for libraries 24,439 25 26,632 34 

Paid for school apparatus. 211,665 47 234,52S 09 

Paid for colored schools.. 56,413 23 64.807 54 
Paid for schoolhouses, 

sites, etc 1,713,107 01 2,184,064 95 

Paid for incidental ex- 
penses 850,766, 8l ( 933.187 60 

Actual expenses of schools. 7,683,201 22 9,040,942 02 



a second An episode of the earlier years u* Superintendent 

iiiii e fU'ntion Weaver's tenure here interposes, to which reference is 
due, not because it had eventful issue, but because it 
is of interest now as the story of an attempt, almost 
successful, at unifying the two great educational de- 
partments of the government. During the ses- 
sion of the legislature of 1869, a bill was in- 
troduced in the assembly proposing " to abolish the 
board of regents of the university, and to establish a 
state board of education," charged with the general 
supervision of all the public schools, academies and 
colleges and with the administration of the laws relat- 
ing to them. The bill was referred to the committee 
on public education reported from that committee and 
occasioned considerable discussion in the house, but it 
was not pressed to a vote. Late in the session, how- 
ever, a resolution was adopted directing the superin 
tendent to report to the next legislature as to the pro- 
priety of abolishing the board of regents and to propose 
such legislation, if any, as might be necessary to place 
the colleges, academies and free schools under a more 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION t»3 

efficient management. In accordance with the reso- 
lution, Mr Weaver prepared an exhaustive report, in 
his usually clear and incisive phrase, giving in outline 
a description of the several systems of education ob- 
taining in the state, pointing out defects in each, but 
insisting that the h§ad of the department of education 
should be a single officer, acting, not as the secretary 
or agent of a board, but upon his own responsibility, 
being directly accountable to the legislature. The fol- 
lowing passage is pertinent now. " The state itself 
has but one system of education, which it maintains 
and enforces, and that is organically a unit. It is the 
system of public instruction, embracing 11,750 schools, 
organized and supported upon one general plan. To 
unite with these schools the academies as now organ- 
ized would not produce uniformity. The association 
of chartered academies, charging for tuition, with free 
public schools, would constitute not a homogeneous 
system, but an incongruous combination;" and further: 
" It is no more essential that the regents remaki an 
independent body in order to carry out faithfully the 
duties imposed upon them respecting colleges and 
academies, than that the school commissioners, who 
perform similar duties in respect to common schools 
should have an organization independent of the De- 
partment.'' He concludes with recommending the pas- 
sage of an act containing two leading propositions, (1) 
that the duration of the office of any regent, hereafter 
elected, be limited to a definite term of years; and (2) 
that the board of regents be made part of the depart- 
ment of education having specific duties the same as 
those then performed by them and, in addition, that 
they be required to visit and inspect the several normal 
schools; and that their report be made to the head of 
the Department, to be incorporated in his annual re- 
port, so that one document might present a complete 
view of the working of the entire system of education 
in the state. A bill was accordingly introduced in the 
assembly, April 12, 1870, by John L. Flagg, of Rens- 
selaer county, which provided for the election of a super- 
intendent of public education for a term of three years 
by joint ballot of the senate and assembly who should 
possess all the powers and be charged with all the 
duties previously vested in or imposed upon the super- 
intendent of public instruction with certain enlarged 



04 Department of Public Instruction 

powers specified; his salary was to be $5,000; the 
regents of the university were to be nineteen in num- 
ber, including those then in office, but as deaths or 
resignations occurred new regents were to be elected 
for terms of ten years ; all annual reports of the regents 
in relation to colleges and acaden^es were to be made 
to the superintendent of education; the regents were 
required to visit and inspect the several state normal 
schools and report thereon to the superintendent the 
names of the several institutions entitled to participate 
in the distribution of the literature fund and other 
appropriations and the number of pupils upon which 
the distribution was based and the superintendent was 
to thereafter make and deliver to the comptroller a 
schedule of the distribution of such moneys, the same 
to be paid by the treasurer upon the warrant of the 
comptroller. This bill was passed by the legislature 
of 1S70, but failed to meet the approval of Governor 
Hoffman and so ended the attempt at unification over 
thirty years ago. It is not, however, amiss to say that 
Superintendent Weaver entertained very sensible views 
upon the subject and that his plan is quite similar to 
that which has now become law. 
Last re- The annual report of Mr Weaver, for the school year 

first term ending September 30, 1870 — the last report of his first 
temienT 111 " term — records better results than the common school 
weaver S y S tem had before produced. Among the evidences of 
progress are the continued improvement in the material 
of school buildings, log houses decreasing 136 and 
frame and brick structures increasing 3S and 200 
respectively during the year; the value of schoolhouses 
and sites increasing from $18,449,048 to $20,426,421; 
the aggregate school attendance increasing from 998,664 
to 1,026,447 and the average attendance from 468,421 
to 484,705 ; the whole number of teachers employed de- 
creasing from 28,310 to 2S.217, the decrease accounted 
for by the increase from 17,140 to 17,437 of those em- 
ployed for 28 weeks or more ; the average weekly wages 
of teachers in cities increasing from $15.16 to $16.12 
and in the rural districts from $7.S6 to $8.13, the 
average annual salaries, inclusive of both city and rural 
districts, having increased from $309.23 in 1867 to 
$372.58 in 1870; 90 academies had been absorbed in 
union free schools and the number of graded schools 
had risen to 694; teachers' institutes had been held in 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION G5 



rural districts in attendance; six normal schools were 
in successful operation, and teachers' classes were 
maintained in ST academies. The actual cost of the 
schools for 1870 was, in the cities 15,074,809.31 and, in 
the rural districts $4,830,644.91, a total of. $9,905,574.22. 
The only criticism, in which the superintendent in- 
dulges, is that relating to the decadence of the libraries, 
which had been occurring for years, the number of 
volumes having diminished since 1853 more than 
600,000— from 1,604,210 to 986,697— while $935,000 had 
been appropriated to them, this being explained by the 
permission to districts, upon certain conditions, some- 
times complied with, but more frequently disregarded, 
to use the money for apparatus and teachers' wages. 

The annual report of Superintendent Weaver for the Tas * an_ 

r ' mini re- 

SCllOOl year ending September 30, 1873, bristles with port <*t 

statistics, and states that the aggregate and average tendent 

attendance at the schools is unprecedented, exceeding 

that of any previous year by several thousands, this 

not being a fortuitous increase, but the product of an 

interrupted growth characterizing the returns each 

year since the inauguration of the free school system. 

Some of these statistics are here transcribed. 

Normal schools 

Location 

Albany 

Brockport 

Buffalo 

Cortland 

Fredonia 

Geneseo 

Oswego , 

I'otsdam 



When 
opened 

1844 
1867 
1871 
1869 

1868 
1871 
1S63 


No. of 
graduates 

1,976 
85 
22 
98 

111 
14 

549 
40 


Expenses 
for 1st:: 

$23,034 79 
21,820 59 

19.716 40 
18,395 01 
20.6S2 57 
21,186 74 
18,000 00 
19,075 05 


Received for 

tuition, 1873 

$3,537 50 

2,560 1<> 

600 00 

269 75 

611 70 

1,130 20 


1869 


1,678 75 



These schools were amply justifying their being, 
although, owing to contracts with localities for 
academic and other departments they were not and 
are not yet as strictly professional as their name im- 
plies. The following are statistical and financial tables 
for 1873 : 

Statistical Rural 

Cities districts Total 

Number of districts 66S 11.327 11,995 

Number of teachers employed at the same 

time for 28 weeks or more 4,940 13.355 IS, 295 

Number of male teachers employed 592 6,505 7.097 

Number of.female teachers employed 5.166 17,201 22,367 

Number of children in attendance 416.063 614.716 1,030,779 

Average daily attendance..: 203,697 295,772 499,469 



B6 Department of Public Instruction 

Financial 

Rural 

Receipts Cities districts Total 

Amount on hand October 1, 1872. $878,905 96 $255,651 37 $1,134,557 33 

Apportionment of public moneys 1,028,714 35 1,665,627 56 2,694,341 91 

Proceeds of gospel and school 

lands 36 44 35,626 17 35,662 61 

Raised by tax 4,600,019 05 3,043,345 47 7,643,364 52 

Estimated value of teachers' 

board 225,93168 225,93168 

From all other sources 105,103 71 249,80122 354,904 93 

$6,612,779 51 $5,475,9S3 47 $12,088,762 98 

Rural 

Payments Cities districts Total 

For teachers' wages $3,693,641 64 $3,721,539 75 $7,415,181 39 

For libraries 11,985 65 15,218 14 27,203 79 

For school apparatus 234.SS9 92 59,255 76 294,145 68 

For colored schools 66,54S 03 8,063 46 74,61149 

For schoolhouses, sites, etc 1,050,926 50 943,206 39 1,994,132 89 

For incidental expenses 663,714 59 476.S6S 13 1,140, 5S0 72 

Forfeited, in hands of super- 
visors 15125 15125 

Amount on hand October 1, 1S73. 891,073 IS 251,682 59 1,142,755 77 

Totals $6,612,779 51 $5,475,983 47 $12,088,762 98 

Deducting from the totals, under the head of pay- 
ments, the sums remaining on hand October 1, 1873, it 
appears that the actual expense of maintaining the 
common schools during the year was $10,946,007.21. 
Comparing some of these figures with those of the year 
(1867) preceding Superintendent Weavers accession to 
office, and the operation of the free school act, the fol- 
lowing increases will be noted: Number of districts 
223; number of teachers employed 2,975; children in 
attendance 81,756 ; average daily attendance 79.512 and 
in the actual expenses of the schools of $3,262,S05.99. 
The average time each pupil in the cities attended 
school was 19 weeks and in the rural districts 16 2-10 
weeks. The average length of school terms in the cities 
was 41 weeks, and, in the state, 35 weeks. Super- 
intendent Weaver's administration was eminently 
sound and practical. He thoroughly believed in the 
democratic principle upon which the common schools 
are based and his courage was displayed in his care 
for their concerns, in his proposal that the head of 
the department of education should be the head of all 
the educational affairs of the state, in his resolute 
opposition to the appropriation of any moneys raised 
by taxation to institutions belonging either to private 
corporations or religious denominations, and in his con- 
sistent fealty to the cause of elementary education. In 
this, there was with him " neither variation nor shadow 
of turning." 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION <>1 

On the 7th of April, 1874, Neil Gilmour, who was a £*&£J'if 
graduate of Union college, and had been a teacher and superin- 

o ■ o ? tendent 

school commissioner in Saratoga county, became super- Giimonr 
intendent.of public instruction. He was reelected in 
1877 and again in 1S80. In his first annual report 
(1S75) he refers to the statistics of the year as exhibit- 
ing a steady growth in the existing system, which 
amply vindicates the wisdom of the legislation 
of 1867. He notes that the number of school 
districts in the towns bad decreased from 11,327, 
in 1873, to 11,299, in 1874, caused chiefly by the con- 
solidation of small districts, and the formation of 
union graded schools in the more populous towns and 
villages. Slight decreases are noted in succeeding 
years, due to the same causes and to the settled policy 
of the Department to encourage the organization of 
such schools. The superintendent calls attention, as 
had his immediate predecessor, to the continuous decay 
of the district libraries, and is satisfied that their use- 
fulness is ended. He distinctly favors the establish- 
ment of town, in lieu of district, libraries. He renews 
the same suggestion in 1870, in which year, he also 
alludes to an issue, that has vexed the Department more 
or less, for many years — the actual or attempted 
evasion of the law and the constitution by denomina- 
tional schools obtaining public moneys. With the con- 
nivance of local authorities, against plain legal pro- 
hibitions. This issue may again be referred to, but 
Superintendent Gilmour's words may here be quoted 
as declaratory of his resolute attitude thereon : " There 
are reports" he writes "that propositions have 
already been made, and in some cases accepted, that 
certain parochial schools, not under the control of the 
state, should be used by the trustees or boards of edu- 
cation of the districts in which they are located, on 
condition that the teachers be appointed by those 
having the control of such schools, or that the course 
of instruction be subject to their approval. The 
adoption of such a policy would be a step towards the 
destruction of our system .of public instruction. I 
earnestly recommend that the legislature take such 
steps as will securely imbed in the constitution of the 
state our common schools; as will place them beyond 
the power of any man or set of men, party or sect, to 
interfere with their admirable working, or in any man- 



68 Department op Public Instruction 

ner impair their usefulness or tend to their destruc- 
tion." According to the report for the school year end- 
ing September 30, 187G, the last year of Superintendent 
Gilmour's first term, the schools had cost $11,439.- 
038.78; the number of school districts in the towns was 
11,285; the number of schoolhouses in the cities was 
430 and the rural districts 11.824; the male teachers 
were 7,687 and the female, 22,522; the aggregate attend- 
ance was 1,067,199 and the average daily attendance 
was 541,610. 
Aaitation During Superintendent Gilmour's second term, pub- 
the normal he attention was called to the work oi the normal 
lct°<m"o« schools, inquiry being especially directed to two points, 
Sntendent" yxz - '■ as to whether the graduates of these institutions 
were keeping faith with the state by engaging in teach- 
ing, and whether the academic and primary branches 
were being maintained to the detriment of the purely 
profession;; 1 department, in accordance with real or 
implied engagements with the localities. Agitation 
was precipitated by the recommendation of Governor 
Robinson, in his message of 1877, that investigation be 
had as to whether these schools were really worth what 
they cost, he Inning been told that a very large portion 
of the pupils instructed in them did not follow the pro- 
fession of teaching for any length of rime. The schools 
passed through a severe ordeal, for powerful influences 
were arrayed against them, but from it they issued 
more secure in public favor than before. Tin 1 superin- 
tendent made diligent examination of the charges pre- 
ferred, addressing a circular to the principals request- 
ing information upon the matters specified. Upon the 
first point, he received most satisfactory replies, and 
found that over 77',' of the graduates had engaged in 
teaching, many intending to make it their vocation for 
life. The second point was not so (dearly settled. Mr 
Gilmour himself did not think that the highest effi- 
ciency of the schools could be attained, while other 
than normal courses were permitted in them, and he 
issued an order, dune 11, 1877, discontinuing the 
academic departments in the institutions at Buffalo, 
Brockport, Cortland, Geneseo, Oswego and Potsdam, 
that at Fredonia being upheld by the express warrant 
of its enabling act. He subsequently suspended the 
operation of his order at Brockport and Potsdam, these 
localities having equities that could not be disregarded; 



A REVIEW OP ITS ADMINISTRATION 69 

and he also recommended that the legislature should 
appoint a committee to report upon this and other 
matters relative to those schools, with a view to per- 
fecting permanent arrangements concerning their con- 
duct. Such a committee was duly appointed and made 
a partial report upon the academic departments; and 
the legislature by resolution requested the superintend- 
ent to revoke his order discontinuing such departments 
in the schools mentioned, which he accordingly did, 
dune 4, 1878, without, however, it appears, reversing 
his own opinion in the premises. In the last annual 
report of his second term (1880) Superintendent Gil- 
nioiir regards the schools as, in the main, fulfilling their 
mission, although conceding the superiority of the city 
schools over those in the rural districts ; he advises an 
increase of the state tax for the benefit of the latter; 
he speaks of the normal schools as, upon the whole, 
doing valuable service and recommends the usual appro- 
priations in their behalf; he suggests legislation 
making it optional with localities to change from the 
district to the township system, and closes with an 
allusion to the movement for unification, even then pro- 
nounced, which he deems unadvisable, as he cannot 
perceive that any good would result from a consoli- 
dation of the two great educational departments of the 
state. The statistics for the year ending September 30, 
1ST!), show that the schools' had cost f 10,348.918.08 ; 
the number of school districts in the towns was 11,280 ; 
the number of schoolhouses in the cities was 410 aud in 
the rural districts 11,442; the male teachers were 8,164 
and the female 22,505; the aggregate attendance was 
1,030,041 and the average daily attendance 570,382. 

During the third term of Superintendent Gilmour, a The oort- 
case arose concerning his jurisdiction over the normal J"*'i l ^iiooi 
schools, that evoked much of controversy and even of ^°"* ro ~ 
bitterness. It was finally determined against him by 
the court of appeals. As settling an important issue, 
a reference to it is in order. Chapter 466 of the laws 
of 1866, under which a majority of the normal schools 
were organized, provided, among other things, that the 
superintendent should appoint for each of these schools 
a local board consisting of not less than three persons, 
who should respectively hold their offices until removed 
by the concurrent action of the chancellor of the uni- 
versity and the superintendent, who should have the 



70 Department of Public Instruction 

immediate management of such school, subject, how 
ever, to the general supervision and direction of the 
superintendent. It was made his duty to determine 
the number of teachers that should be employed in 
such school and their wages, and their employment 
was to be by the local board subject to his approval. 
By chapter 18 of the laws of 1869, it was furl her pro- 
vided that " during such time as any local hoard shall 
omit to discharge its duties, the said superintendent 
(of public instruction) is authorized to discharge the 
duties of such local boards or any of its officers ; and 
the acts of said superintendent in the premises shall 
be as valid and binding as if done by a competent local 
board or its officers, or with their cooperation." 
Assuming that he was warranted by the law, and hold- 
ing that its interests would be served by a change in 
the principalship of the Cortland normal school the 
superintendent, on the 28th of June, 18S0, requested 
the resignation of Principal James H. Hoose. On the 
8th of July, Doctor Hoose responded, declining to 
resign. On the 12th of July, the superintendent, forti- 
fied by the opinion of the attorney -general, Hamilton 
Ward, notified Doctor Hoose of the withdrawal of his 
approval of said House's employment as principal and 
also notified the local board of his action, giving his 
reasons therefor in full, anil asked that some competent 
person should be recommended to him as principal. 
This the board declined to do; and. on the 4th day of 
August, the superintendent appointed Doctor James 
M. Cassety acting principal, sustained in this proceed- 
ing also by the attorney-general. Doctor Cassety pre- 
sented himself at the school prepared to take charge 
thereof, but the local board, being in possession of the 
building, refused to admit him and continued Doctor 
Hoose as principal. Thereupon the attorney-general 
applied for a peremptory writ of mandamus before 
.Judge .Marl in. hearing being had at a special term held 
at Binghamton, on the 20th of October, to compel the 
local board to terminate the employment of Doctor 
Hoose and to recognize Doctor Cassety. Judge Martin 
granted the writ and Doctor Cassety became prin- 
cipal in February, L881, acting as such until April, 
1S82. Meanwhile the local board appealed from Judge 
Martin's decision to the general term of the supreme 
court, which affirmed the judgment of the court below, 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 



71 



but, upon appeal to the court of the last resort, Judge 
Tracy writing the opinion, this judgment was reversed 
and Doctor Hoose was reinstated. This decision was 
upon the grounds that " the supervision and manage- 
ment of the board is immediate; the supervision and 
management of the superintendent is general," and 
that the power to remove a teacher, without the con- 
currence of the local board was not comprehended 
within his general jurisdiction. The following are the Last an _ 

statistical and financial reports for the last year of »« a ' report 

1 ^ of super- 

Superintendent Gilmour's administration: intendent 

Gilmour 

Statistical 

Cities Towns State 

Number of districts 11,257 11,257 

Number of teachers employed at the same 

time for 28 weeks or more 6,562 14,340 20,902 

Number of children between 5 and 21 years 

of age 857.560 S23.601 1.6S1.161 

Number of male teachers employed 681 6,442 7,123 

Number of female teachers employed 6,741 17,369 24.110 

Number of children in attendance. 146.385 594,683 1,011,068 

Average daily attendance 202. S73 3m;.. -.98 569 471 

Visitations by commissioners 16,199 16.199 

Number of volumes in libraries 169,17* 536,456 705,634 

Number of log schoolhouses IS 76 

Number of frame schoolhouses 4. 10.053 10.100 

Number of brick scboolhouses 39] 952 1,343 

Number of stone schoolhouses 387 395 

Whole number of schoolhouses 446 11.468 11,914 



Financial 

Receipts Cities Towns State 

Amount on hand October 1,1881. $859,443 02 $324,09:3 70 $1,183 ,.539 72 

Apportionment of public moneys 1,278,537 79 1,693,035 48 2,971,593 27 
Proceeds of gospel and school 

lands 19.143 16 19.143 16 

Raised by tax 5,144,032 53 2,688,602 11 7,S32,694 64 

Estimated yaiue of teachers' 

board 102,472 81 102,472 81 

From other sources 155,153 90 279,612 79 434.766 69 

Totals $7,437.227 24 $5,106,983 05 $12,544,210 29 

Payments Cities Towns State 

For teachers' wages $1,502.289 07 $3,453,972 24 $7,986,26131 

For libraries 19,004 95 16,800 80 35,805 75 

For school apparatus 160,52113 30,26169 190.782 S2 

For colored schools 37,427 62 6.424 31 43.85193 

For schoolhouses. sites, etc 795,055 88 730,370 31 1,525,420 19 

For incidental expenses 913,416 10 487,044 36 1,400,460 46 

Forfeited, in supervisors' hands 43S 96 438 96 

Amount on hand September 30, 

1882 ." 1,009,512 49 351,670 38 1,361,182 87 

Totals $7,437,227 24 $5,103.983 05 $12,544,210 29 



Deducting from the totals, under the heads of pay- 
ments, the sums remaining on hand September 30, 1882, 
it appears that the adual expenses of maintaining the 
common schools during the year were in the cities 
$0,427,714.75 and in the towns $4,755,312.67— a total 



72 Department of Public Instruction 

of 111,183,027.42. A few comparisons may be made 
with 1874, the first year of the Gilmour tenure, from 
which it appears that few material changes had 
occurred either in the cost or conduct of the common 
schools. In that year, the expense of their maintenance 
was |11,08S,981.70; teachers' wages were $7,601,518.79; 
the number of teachers was 29,622, and the aggregate 
number of children in attendance was 1,044,360. 
tVatioIi iS of William B. Ruggles, a graduate of Hamilton college. 
temient" who had been a journalist and a lawyer and had repre- 
Rnseies sen ted Steuben county in the assembly, for two terms, 
became superintendent of public instruction, April 7, 
1883, and served until January 1, 1886, when he re- 
signed, and his deputy, James E. Morrison, filled the 
office for the balance of the term. As a member of the 
("mient" judiciary committee of the assembly in 1877, Mr 
normal* 01 ' Ruggles had been a severe critic of the normal schools, 
sci.oo s k u ^ j n h^ fi rs t annual report he comes to the confes- 
sional in the following words : " When I took charge of 
the Department of Public Instruction on the 7th of 
April last, I came to that trust prepossessed with the 
belief that the normal schools were not, in fact, accom- 
plishing the purpose designed and expected upon their 
organization, and that, measured by their results, they 
were too costly an experiment. .^ Wider opportunities 
for observation and the facilities for closer inspection 
of their actual operation, which a somewhat intimate 
official relation with them has afforded, have tended to 
modify my views considerably in respect to their prac- 
tical utility and to inspire me with, what seems a 
reasonable hope, that the anticipations of their friends 
may in time be substantially realized. Normal schools 
in this state, as a part of the free school system, may 
be considered to be permanently established." He 
thinks that the relative proportion of strictly normal 
school instruction should be enlarged and the merely 
elementary and academic diminished, but he finds that, 
for ten years past, the number of teachers in the com- 
mon schools holding normal school diplomas had in- 
creased each year; that, in 1873, the whole number of 
teachers with such diplomas was 632, and 1,280 in 1883, 
and that the number in the towns was 337 and 911 
respectively; or, in other words, that such teachers, 
during the decade, had more than doubled in the one 
case and nearly trebled in the other. 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 73 

The first report of Superintendent Ruggies is a JJ55*,J?" 
valuable contribution to the work of the schools, superin- 

' teiulent 

intelligent in treatment, comprehensive in scope, Ruggies 
and helpful in suggestion. It records improve- 
ment in several important particulars over the 
preceding year — in the increase of union free schools, 
then numbering 365 organized under the general 
law and 65 under special acts, in larger interest in and 
attendance upon the institutes, in greater expenditure 
for school buildings and their appurtenances, depend- 
ent upon local taxation, in the number of visitations 
by commissioners, in attendance and weeks taught, in 
teachers employed and their advanced wages and con- 
cludes that the system is steadily advancing and ex- 
panding. It regards the salary of a school commis- 
sioner as inadequate and proposes an increase thereof 
to f 1 ,000, and approves the changes effected by the law 
of the previous year by which the school year was ended 
on the 20th of August, instead of the 30th of September 
and the annual district meetings were directed to be 
held the last Tuesday in August, instead of the second 
Tuesday in October. It does not draw a glowing pic- 
ture of the sanitary condition of the schools, esteeming 
this a matter for grave inquiry, and citing a report 
made by the state board of health to the Governor 
in 1882, in relation thereto, in which very serious de- 
fects in ventilation, cleanliness, water supply, seating 
accommodations, etc., in a majority of cases, are 
enumerated. The superintendent recommends an 
appropriation, one of like character having been made 
in 1863, to enable him to prepare and distribute designs 
and specifications for school buildings, with appro- 
priate explanations and instructions as to ventilation, 
heating, seating, arrangement of closets and out- 
houses and sanitary provisions generally. 

Salient features of the second annual report (1885) 
of Superintendent Ruggies are his statement of the 
deplorable state of the district libraries, with the 
recommendation that the law as it stood prior to 1S51, 
making the district quota therefor dependent upon the 
raising of an equal amount locally, should be substan- 
tially revived, the experiment being worth trying to 
avoid absolute extinction; the tribute to the normal 
college of the city of New York, the graduates of which 
were supplying about one-half of the teachers thereof; 



74 Department op Public Instruction 

the repetition of the recommendation for the increase 
of the salary of the school commissioner to $1,000 
(happily accomplished by chapter 340 of the laws of 
1885) ; and a lengthly opinion, in conformity with the 
uniform decisions of the Department, to the effect that 
religious instruction and exercises must be excluded 
from the public schools during school hours. 
of a func e - nt In the course of this review, the functions of the 
thTsnper- superintendent of public instruction have more or less 
intendent clearly, although perhaps, disjointedly, appeared, but 
in the last annual report (188G) of Superintendent 
Ruggles, transmitted to the legislature by Mr Morrison, 
there is a statement of the same so definite and con- 
secutive that it cannot be impertinent to here make an 
abstract thereof as showing how ample are the powers 
vested in him and the supremacy of his office in the 
educational history of the state, premising that no 
material modification of the same has since occurred. 
He has the appointment of all office subordinates, insti- 
tute conductors and instructors, superintendents of 
Indian schools, the local boards of the state normal 
schools and the teachers in the same (except Albany I 
on the nomination of local boards, the pupils in the 
normal departments of these schools, on the recom- 
mendation of commissioners, subject to entrance ex- 
aminations by the faculties, and the state pupils in the 
institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind on 
certificates of supervisors and local officers having 
charge of the poor in the several counties. In connec- 
tion with the trustees of the American Museum of 
Natural History in the city of New York, he appoints 
and employs the instructor and his assistants in the 
department of free instruction to the teachers of that 
city on scientific subjects. He apportions and dis- 
tributes to the several counties, cities and school dis- 
tricts, the moneys annually appropriated from the com- 
mon school, the United States deposit and the free 
school funds. He pays, through warrant on the stale 
treasurer, countersigned by the comptroller, the salaries 
of the various officials heretofore specified and those of 
the commissioners, and examines all accounts and 
vouchers connected therewith, as well as those for 
maintaining examinations, issuing certificates and all 
necessary office expenses. He designates the times and 
places for holding teachers' institutes and assigns con- 



A. REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 75 

ductors and instructors to the same, and also appoints 
times and places for holding examinations. He has 
general supervision over the state normal schools, and 
the eleemosynary institutions, in which the state has 
pupils are subject to his visitation; and, in the words 
of Superintendent Ruggles, " of all the duties imposed 
by law upon the State Superintendent, the most 
arduous and exacting — the one, more than any other, 
calling for the exercise of patience and a sound and 
discreet judgment — which occupies in its performance 
a larger portion of the time of the superintendent and 
his deputy and the clerical force in the office, than all 
others combined, is the duty of adjusting and settling, 
whenever his intervention is called for, by official 
direction, advice or opinion, or by adjudications on 
appeal, the innumerable misunderstandings and con- 
troversies arising out of the execution of the school 
laws in the cities, villages and thousands of school dis- 
tricts throughout the state." " I am not aware," he 
adds, " of the existence of any other judicial tribunal 
in this state which is entrusted with such absolute 
judicial power over matters within the scope of its 
jurisdiction. Even the decisions of our highest state 
appellate court — the court of appeals — in a large 
class of cases, are subject to be reviewed and reversed 
by another court." The following are the statistical 
and financial reports for the year ending August 20, i-ast an- 
1885, the last year of the Ruggles administration: """i.e*" 1 ' 01 

RnSSles 
adminis- 
Statistical tration 

Cities Towns State 

Number of districts 11.254 11.254 

Number of teachers employed at the same 

time for 2S weeks or more 7,211 14,613 21,284 

Number of children between 5 and 21 years 

of age 913,269 807,857 1,721,126 

Number of male teachers employed 716 5.305 6,021 

Number of female teachers employed 7.514 17,864 25,378 

Number of children in attendance 449.879 574,966 1,024,845 

Average daily attendance 296,152 314,867 6 11^ 19 

Visitations of commissioners 15.342 15,342 

Number of volumes in libraries 199,126 533,750 732,876 

Number of log schoolhouses 70 70 

Number of frame schoolhouses 41 10,042 10.0S3 

Number of brick schoolhouses 426 960 1.3S6 

Number of stone schoolhouses 9 364 373 

Whole number of schoolhouses 476 11,436 11,912 

Financial 

Receipts Cities Towns State 

Amount on hand August 21. 18S4. $1,453,014 72 $509,721 60 $1,962,736 32 

Apportionment of public moneys 1,322,161 03 1,678,979 13 3,001,140 16 
Proceeds of gospel and school 

lands f.... 28,939 48 28,939 48 



76 Department op Public Instruction 

Receipts Cities Towns State 

Raised by tax $G, 557, 846 78 $3, 154, 4 17 43 $9, 712, 324 21 

Estimated value of teachers' 

board 80.225 33 SO, 2^3 33 

From other sources 213.826 61 450,92171 770,748 32 

Total 59,552,849 14 $5,903,264 68 

Payments Cities Towns 

For teachers - wages $1,923,521 68 $3. 831. 128 55 

For libraries 2O.04S 36 21.32138 

For school apparatus 277.103 31 39,053 80 

For colored schools 13,679 88 8,616 97 

For sehoolhouses, sites, etc 1.S3S.102 19 986.29114 

For incidental expenses 908,400 42 590,706 51 

Forfeited, in hands of super- 
visors 90 ra 

Amount on hand August 20, 18S5. 1.571,849 14 41S.052 55 

Total $3,552,849 14 $5,903,264 6S 



$15,456,113 82 


State 


$? ,762,950 23 

41.369 74 
316, liO 11 

22,296 85 
2,824,393 33 
1,499,106 93 


TO 78 
1,989,745 85 


$15,456,113 82 



Deducting from the totals, under the head of pay- 
ments, the sums remaining on hand August 20, 1885, 
the actual expenses of the common schools during the 
year were in the cities $7,981,155.84 and in the towns 
$5,185,212.13— a total of $13.400.307.97— an increase of 
$1,283,340.55 during Superintendent Buggles's incum- 
bency. 
AdminiB- Andrew S. Draper, a lawyer, a graduate of the 
Andrew s. Albany Academy, who had been a teacher, a member 
Draper ^ ^ Albany board of education and an assemblyman, 
became Superintendent of Public Instruction, April 6, 
1886. He was reelected in 1889. His administration 
was distinguished for activity, executive capacity and 
for the accomplishment of many valuable reforms, the 
most notable of which was that of the uniform examina- 
History oi tion <>f teachers. The history of professional examina- 
examina- tions in this state is an interesting one, already referred 

lions CT 

to incidentally, but which now calls for a somewhat ex- 
tended review. From the first, the state insisted that 
teachers should possess proper qualifications for their 
calling. The act of 1795 specified, among the other 
duties of town commissioners, that they slum Id deter- 
mine the qualifications of teachers. It also provided 
that the inhabitants residing within different parts of 
any town might form associations for the purpose of 
maintaining schools and might appoint two or more 
persons to act in their behalf as trustees, who should 
employ teachers and consult with the commissioners 
concerning their qualifications, and the associations 
were debarred from the apportionment of public 
moneys, unless the trustees employed teachers who met 
the approval of the commissioners. This method ob- 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 77 

tained until 1812. The act of that year, which fixed 
the number of commissioners of a town at three, pro- 
vided, also, as has been stated, for three inspectors who, 
with the commissioners, were made a board to examine 
and license teachers. This plan was continued until 
1841, when the number of inspectors for a town was 
fixed at two, who were still associated with the com- 
missioners as an examining and licensing board. 
Power was also given to deputy superintendents in the 
same respect. In 1813, when the offices of town com- 
missioners and inspectors were abolished, their func- 
tions were vested in town superintendents, and the 
name of deputy was changed to that of county superin- 
tendent, each with territorial jurisdiction defined by 
his title. The acts also conferred upon the superin- 
tendent of common schools, on the recommendation of 
county superintendents, or such other evidence as 
might be satisfactory to him, the power to issue cer- 
tificates entitling their holders to teach in any public 
school within the state. After the abolition of the 
office of county superintendent in 1847, there remained 
but two authorities to issue teachers certificates — the 
state superintendent and the town superintendents, 
those of the latter having validity only within their 
own towns. In 185G, the office of town superintendent 
being vacated, school commissioners succeeded, with 
authority to examine teachers and issue certificates 
for their respective districts, with the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction empowered to prescribe the rules 
under which such certificates might be issued. State 
superintendents never, however, exercised this power 
until 1888, when Superintendent Draper promulgated 
the uniform system of examination for the guidance of 
commissioners. For many years there had been a 
demand for a change in the method of certification of 
teachers. Certificates in many cases were issued to 
unqualified persons, because of political pressure and 
sometimes because of corrupt appliances. The wisdom 
of placing this important work under the immediate 
direction of the State Superintendent and establishing 
a uniform basis for examining and licensing the 
teachers of the entire state had been a subject for dis- 
cussion at many of the state educational associations 
and was generally conceded. Superintendent Draper 
at once understood that the absence of a definite 



78 Department of Public Instruction 

scheme to determine the qualifications of teachers was 
one of the weakest things in the school system, and he 
sought to remedy it with all the energy and resources 
at his command. The opinion prevailed that legisla- 
tion was necessary to centralize this work under the 
superintendent and he prepared a bill to this end, 
which passed the legislature, in 1887, but was vetoed by 
Governor Hill, upon the ground, as the Governor 
claimed, that it discriminated in favor of New York 
and Brooklyn, which were excepted from its operation. 
The failure to obtain legislation did not discourage the 
superintendent. He was resolved to raise the teaching- 
force to a higher standard and he thought it could be 
done in no more effectual way than by instituting a 
definite uniform method for the examination of 
teachers. Seventy-five per cent, of the commissioners 
in their reports had favored such a scheme under 
the direction of the superintendent. It was suggested 
that commissioners might request the superintendent 
to provide uniform rules and prepare questions 
to be used by them in their examinations. Every 
educational association in the state and every 
educational journal therein gave this movement their 
cordial support. By September 1, 1887, sixty commis- 
sioners had expressed their willingness to adopt rules 
formulated by the superintendent and to use examina- 
tion papers provided by him. The first examinaiion 
was held in September, 1887, and monthly examina- 
tions were held during the remainder of the year. By 
July 1. 1888, every commissioner in the state had volun- 
examina- tarily adopted the uniform system. Superintendent 
eompiisiied Draper held that, under certain provisions of the school 
laws, he already possessed the power to ordain a uni- 
form system of examinations and to compel the com- 
missioners to adopt it. In this view, he was sustained 
by Attorney-General Charles F. Tabor. He, therefore, 
issued an order that, in the future, all commissioners 
should comply with the requirements of the uniform 
system. Whatever doubt may have existed as to the 
authority of the superintendent was removed in 1801, 
when the revised ronsolidated school law was enacted 
which, by subdivision 5, title 5, section 13, of that 
act directs that the school commissioners shall ; " ex- 
amine, under such rules and regulations as have been 
or may be prescribed by the Superintendent of Public 



A REVIEW OP ITS ADMINISTRATION 79 

Instruction, persons proposing to teach common schools 
within his district * * * an d ? jf he finds them 
qualified, to grant them certificates of qualification in 
the forms which are or may be prescribed by the super- 
intendent." The Department now prepares all papers Examina- 
used in examinations and forwards them to commis- generally 
sioners. The papers submitted by candidates were 
marked by commissioners until June, 1894. The legis- 
lature of that year made provision for the appointment 
of a board of examiners in the State Department. 
This board was organized in June, 1894, and since then 
all examination papers have not only been prepared 
by the Department, but the answer papers submitted 
by candidates have also been marked in that Depart- 
ment by a permanent board of examiners. This places 
the certification of teachers upon an absolutely honest 
and uniform basis and renders it impossible for a per- 
son to obtain a certificate who does not possess the 
requisite scholarship. The same evils and abuses that 
existed in commissioner districts before the uniform 
system was adopted prevailed to some extent in the 
cities of the state. While the State Superintendent 
had the authority to prescribe the regulations under 
which teachers should be examined in commissioner 
districts, he did not possess authority to prescribe such 
rules for the cities. The charter of each, or special 
educational acts therefor, determine in what manner 
the teachers of such cities shall be examined and 
licensed. In some of the cities, the uniform system of 
examinations governs by statute. In most, however, 
teachers are examined and licensed under such regu- 
lations as the local school board, or superintendent pre- 
scribes, and the authorities of nearly all the cities have 
adopted the uniform system, Albany, Buffalo, James- 
town and New York being the exceptions. Under the 
uniform system of examinations thus adopted three 
classes of teachers' certificates were issued, as follows : 
A third grade certificate valid for six months, renew- 
able only upon examination and to be issued to the 
same person but twice. A second grade certificate 
valid for two years and renewable only upon examina- 
tion. A first grade certificate valid for five years and 
renewable in the discretion of a commissioner without 
examination. This system with various modifications 
and amendments is still in force. Temporary permits 



80 



Department of Public Instruction 



Reforms 
instituted 
by Super- 
intendent 
Draper 



Supervi- 
sion of 
training' 
classes 
vested in 
superin- 
tendent 



are issued, to bridge over an emergency, and continue 
only long enough to carry the candidate to the next 
examination. Uniform and grade examinations are 
now held at appropriate times and places, in the dis- 
tricts, and for life state certificates, in August, in 
various cities. There are also examinations for kinder- 
garten teachers. A certificate is issued by the superin- 
tendent, without examination, to any graduate of a 
college or university, who has had three years experi- 
ence as a teacher in the public schools of the state sub- 
sequent to graduation; and the holder of a normal 
school diploma is thereby accredited as a teacher. 

Superintendent Draper was famous, as he still is, 
for his capacity for organization. He did things. In 
addition to his signal reform in the conduct of exam- 
inations — the crowning glory of his administration — 
many other of his achievements might be recorded. 
To a few, attention must certainly be drawn ; and, first 
of these, is the transfer of the control of teachers' 
classes from the regents to the department of public 
instruction. Shortly after Superintendent Draper 
assumed office, he found that there were, under the 
management of the regents, 195 teachers' classes in 
142 academies and union schools, with 2,676 students, 
for whom tuition was allowed from the state appro- 
priation for that purpose to the amount of $33,091. 
Educators were generally apprehending the incongruity 
of the control of these classes by the regents — an 
agency really foreign to the common schools — super- 
vising the preparation of their teachers, and the 
thought was dominant in their minds that all the 
instrumentalities tor such preparation, the normal 
schools, the uniform examinations, the teachers' insti- 
tutes and the teachers' classes should be related to 
each other, each accommodating itself to and supple- 
menting the work of the other. It was seen that three 
of these were so related, while the fourth was acting 
separately and independently. At the annual holiliav 
conference of the associated academic principals, in 
1888, at Syracuse, this sentiment took shape not, as 
is to be suspected, without the inspiration of the super- 
intendent, in a resolution adopted unanimously to 
the effect that, as the licensing of teachers was in 
the hands of the superintendent and as it was desir- 
able that the teachers' classes should be part of a 
symmetrical system for the education of teachers, the 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 81 

management of such classes should be trans- 
ferred to the department of public instruction. This 
resolution, accompanied by a coherent and convinc- 
ing statement of the situation, was presented by Super- 
intendent Draper to the board of regents and met with 
the prompt and cordial acquiescence of that body; and 
by chapter 137 of the laws of 1889, the supervision 
of the teachers' classes passed from the regents to the 
department, with the best results, as the concurrent 
evidence of principals, commissioners and educators 
generally, abundantly attests. Still other features of 
Superintendent Draper's administration, some of statu- 
tory and others of his individual sanction, were these: 
The changing of district school meetings from the last 
to the first Tuesday in August and the closing of the 
school year on the 25th of July instead of the 20th 
of August; the changing of county to district institutes, 
in the hope that they would be less mass meetings 
and more schools of instruction (although as now 
graded the institutes are frequently joint ones of two 
or more districts) ; the publication of a new code of 
public instruction; contracts with teachers to be in 
writing and monthly payment of their wages made 
mandatory; competitive examinations for the free 
scholarships from assembly districts in Cornell uni- 
versity; the extention of the minimum time, in which 
schools were to be kept open, from 20 to 32 weeks; 
the obtaining of designs and specifications for the build- 
ing of schoolhouses to cost from $600 to $10,000 and 
their wide dissemination; the health and decency act; 
the increase of general state appropriations for free 
schools by $1,000,000; admission to normal schools, the 
courses of study and the condition of graduation reg- 
ulated with a view to making them more completely 
training schools for teachers; the chartering of three 
new normal schools — New Paltz, Oneonta and Platts- ^ast an- 
burg; and the designation of the Friday following the port of 
first day of May in each year as Arbor day. Very tend"."" 
properly could the superintendent say, in surrendering Draper 
his trust : " Careful students of American systems of 
education must admit that New York holds deservedly 
a most prominent position among her sister states as 
regards provisions for popular instruction. Although 
she has never received her full share of credit for the 
part she played in the past, which entitled her to a 



82 



Department of Public Instruction 



most conspicuous position in the history of popular 
education in this country, yet she is now attracting 
universal attention by the tremendous efforts of the 
present. We are now realizing that the first and most 
important duty of the sin te is to provide a good ele- 
mentary education for the masses, on whose intelli- 
gence and patriotism the safety of the commonwealth 
depends, and to see that every child receives such an 
education. It only remains to agree on the details of 
the measures and then the feeling would be ripe and 
the circumstances opportune for decisive legislation, 
which would soon enable New York, with her boundless 
wealth and her great liberality, to distance all com- 
petitors, and to make her elementary schools the best 
in the world." The following are statistical and finan- 
cial tables for the year ending July 25, 1891 : 



Statistical 



Number of districts 

Number of teachers emplovei.1 at the same 

time for legal term of school 9,126 

Number of male teachers employed 970 

Number of female teachers employed 9,512 

Number of children in attendance 513,066 

Average daily attendance 344,609 

Number of times visited by commissioners 

Number volumes in district, libraries 244,333 

Number schoolhouses, log 

Number schoolhouses, frame 56 

Number school houses, brick 533 

Number schoolhouses, stone 6 

Total number schoolhouses 595 



Financial 

Receipts Cities 

Amount on hand at beginning of 

school year $2,393,739 99 

Apportionment of public moneys 1,649,900 74 
Proceeds of gospel and school 

lands 1,062 94 

Raised by tax 8,460,756 44 

Estimated value of teachers' 

bti.'inl 

From all other sources 636,972 41 



Rural 

districts 
11,196 

15,231 

17! Ill 
540,978 
305,408 

13-.939 

584,820 

45 

10,070 

1,040 

322 

11,477 



Rural 
districts 



$704,112 75 
2,115,355 76 



29.3S3 31 
3,692,593 47 



46,794 24 
538,446 24 



Total 
11,196 

24,357 
5,359 

ui;.i;-:; 

1,054,044 

650.017 

13.939 

829,153 

45 

10,126 

1,573 

328 

12,072 



$3,097,852 74 
3,765,256 50 



30.446 25 
12, 153, 349 91 



46,794 24 
1,175,418 65 



Total $13,142,432 52 $7,126,685 77 $20,269,118 29 



Payments 

For teachers' wages 

For libraries 

For school apparatus 

For schoolhouses. siles. etC 

For incidental expenses 

Forfeited, with supervisors 

Amount on hand at end of yeai 

Total 



Cities 
56,564,365 94 

24.620 41 

340,236 L0 

2,707,165 70 

1,213,205 64 



2,292,838 73 



Rural 
districts 

$4,443,620 49 
27,588 94 
53,926 85 
998,798 11 
795,440 18 
916 63 
SOI, 444 27 



Total 
,012,986 43 

52,159 35 
394,162 95 
,705,964 11 
,008,645 82 
916 63 
,094.283 00 



$13,142.132 52 $7,126,6S5 77 $20,269,118 29 



Deducting from this total, the amount on hand at 
the end of the school year, the actual expense of main- 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 83 

taining the schools, for the year ending July 25, 1891, 
was $17,174,835.29 or $3,708,-407.32 more than they cost 
for the year immediately preceding Superintendent 
Draper's accession. Meanwhile, the aggregate value of 
schoolhouses and sites increased from $35,662,084 to 
-150,013,491, the average daily attendance from 625,813 
to 650,017, the average length of school term in the 
towns from 33.3 to 35.3 weeks, the number of teachers 
employed for the legal term, from 22,240 to 24,357 ; the 
amount paid for teachers' wages from $9,102,268.77 to 
$11,012,986.43; their average annual earnings from 
$409.27 to $452.16, and their average weekly wages 
from $11.46 to 12.18. 

James F. Crooker, who had been a teacher and ^"^J^f 
superintendent of the schools of Buffalo, became superin- 
superintendent of public instruction, April 7, 1892, crooker 
and served one term. The prevailing tone of his 
first annual report (1893) is that of satisfaction 
with the condition of the schools. There is, he 
discovers, a spirit of improvement manifest in the 
character and capacity of the buildings, the rude 
structures in the rural districts having given place 
to modern and comfortable ones. The primitive 
log housings had substantially disappeared, only 41 
of that kind remaining. " Within the last two 
decades," he says, " vast advance strides have been 
made in school architecture and schoolhouses are now 
constructed upon sound scientific principles and with 
a view of obeying the laws of health." He accompanies 
his statement with specimen drawings of both the ex- 
terior and interior of a number of the recently erected 
houses, creditable in appearance and convenient in 
appointments, in the likeness of which there are, to day, 
thousands in the state — in the towns, as well as in the 
cities and villages, our school architecture certainly 
not being excelled by that of any other state. Upon 
this development, in which every citizen of New York 
may take just pride, the later superintendents have 
bestowed great pains. The superintendent is gratified 
in that the number of normal school graduates em- 
ployed for the past exceeds that of the preceding year 
by 426 and concludes that the normal courses, the 
training classes and the uniform examinations are, in 
concert, doing much to elevate the standards of the 
public schools and to render them more and more 



84 



Department of Public Instruction 



Superin- 
tendent 

Crooker's 
views on 
elemen- 
tary and 
secondary 
education 



efficient; the salaries of teachers have appreciated but 
he still thinks that they are disgracefully meager in 
the country schools. In common with nearly all his 
predecessors he advocates the adoption of the town- 
ship, and the doing away with the district, system, but 
his recommendation to that end was unheeded by the 
legislature, as has been that of his successor, although 
sustained by the leading educators of the state and by 
the unvarying experience of other states in its favor, 
which means of course town trustees, with the com- 
missioners intermediary between them and the state 
superintendent. 

Superintendent Crooker had certain positive ideas 
concerning the obligation of the state to stimulate and 
support elementary, as compared with and even prefer- 
ential to, higher and secondary, education, and he did 
not hesitate to express them. In die report, now under 
consideration, he somewhat bluntly, thus phrases his 
thought: "Too much attention is given to higher edu- 
cation at the expense of a thorough, practical ground- 
ing in a knowledge of the subjects with which the 
great masses have to deal in ordinary business trans- 
actions. * * * If the state deems it wise that 
greater expenditure for school purposes should be made, 
instead of appropriating increased sums for academic 
education, examinations in law and medicine, univer- 
sity extension, and all such schemes which are of 
doubtful propriety for the state to meddle with, it were 
a thousand fold better to appropriate money for the 
establishment of kindergarten schools in the large 
cities. Better appropriate $50,000 for such schools in 
the cities than $1,000 for university extension, so 
called." The superintendent repeats the same views 
in his second annual report (1894) and enlarges 
upon them in his third (1895). From this the 
following passages are quoted : " The common schools 
are the special wards of the Department of Public 
Instruction, and every dollar of state school moneys 
withheld from them by being diverted to other and 
more fortunate schools, means inexcusable injustice 
and tends to weaken and injure them materially. In 
my previous annual reports. I have alluded to the 
injustice and deleterious effects of the clashing 
dual-headed system which exists in the management 
of public education. A large amount of the public 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 85 

school moneys, which rightly belongs to the common 
school funds for general apportionment, is with- 
drawn yearly and devoted to a purpose entirely at 
variance with the spirit of free public education. This 
diversion is wrong in principle, wrong in application, 
and vicious in its tendencies and results. This double- 
headed educational management is the most peculiar 
feature in this state or in any other. No other depart- 
ment in the state has two heads for the management 
of its affiairs. It is an anomaly! One branch dis- 
tributes a portion of the school funds in its own way, 
according to its own peculiar and independent rules, 
while the other apportions another part in accordance 
with the statutory laws governing it. * * * 
The state appropriation yearly, for the support of the 
regents, is over $1S5,500. This I consider an useless 
expense so far as the interest of a great majority of 
the public schools is concerned, although it may be of 
financial benefit to these few; I must, therefore, 
earnestly protest once more against the dual system 
and plan of taking away any portion of the state 
moneys from the common school fund for the purpose 
of sustaining two educational departments and prac- 
ticing favoritism toward one branch of the school sys- 
tem at the expense of another. It is radically and 
inexcusably wrong. * * * The recently amended 
constitution, in an article, provides against the pay- 
ment of any public school moneys toward the main- 
tenance of any private schools or parochial institutions, 
and now the legislature ought to provide, by an enact- 
ment of law, against the use of any money by the 
regents, if only to prohibit the paying of premiums 
to schools on examinations, and it would thereby save 
to the state a large amount of money that could be 
used for general educational purposes." These views 
of Superintendent Crooker are reproduced, not specially 
with the purpose of endorsing them, but as due to 
him as an affirmation of his fidelity to the common 
school system and his sensitiveness to what he con- 
sidered encroachments upon its democratic adminis- 
tration, as well as his contribution to the vexed ques- 
tion of the unification of the educational departments 
of the state, the discussion of which, in late years, 
has engaged so much of the attention of educators 
and statesmen, with so many and so diverse proposi- 
tions for departure and adjustment. 



86 



Department of Public Instruction 



Changes 
in the ex- 
amination 
depart- 
ment 



Consoli- 
dated 
school act 
of 1894 



Superin- 
tendent 
CrooUer's 
last :• ■ i — 
annual 
report 



Important changes were made in the examination 
department during 1894. In accordance with the 
recommendation of the superintendent, the legislature 
made an appropriation enabling him to appoint a board 
of examiners to pass upon the answer papers submitted 
by candidates for commissioners' certificates to teach 
in the state. Such board was duly constituted and 
has since done admirable work. Under it, a certificate 
of any grade issued in any county is of the same value 
as a certificate of a corresponding grade issued in 
any other count};, and the commissioners are relieved 
of a large amount of clerical work previously devolv- 
ing upon them. The legislature of 1894 passed the 
" consolidated school act," the same taking effect 
June 30. This was the first revision, or consolidation, 
since 18G4. No radical changes were made by it, but, 
under it, the school year begins August 1 and ends 
July 31; schools must be taught, at least 100 days in- 
clusive of legal holidays and exclusive of Saturdays; 
all school district officers must be elected by ballot; all 
propositions for the expenditure of money, or authoriz- 
ing the levy of a tax, must be determined by ballot, 
or by the ayes and noes of qualified voters ; and where 
a tax is voted to be raised for the building of a school- 
house, or an addition thereto, said tax to be raised by 
installments, the payment, or collection, of the last 
installment cannot be extended beyond twenty years. 
The following are statistical and financial tables for 
the year ending July 31, 1894 : 

Statistical 

Rural 

Cities districts Total 

Number of districts 11,121 11,121 

Number of teachers employed at I lie same 

time for 1G0 days or more in. 264 15.632 25.vn; 

Number of male teachers employed 1,022 4.074 5.036 

Number of female teachers empioyed 10.729 17,104 27,833 

Number of children in attendance r,s:i.::t;:: :,?,:.. G35 1,124,998 

Average daily attendance 407,955 313. 10S 721,<i;:i 

Number of commissioners' yisitations 11.9(15 11,906 

Number of volumes in district libraries.... 321..515 477,551 799,096 

Number of schoolhouses, log 31 31 

Number of schoolhouses, frame 67 10,008 10,075 

Number of schoolhouses, brick 583 1,003 1,589 

Number of schoolhouses, stone 8 302 310 

Total number schoolhouses 658 11,347 , 12,005 



Financial 



Receipts Cities 

Amount on hand August 1, 1S93. $2,196,499 14 
Apportionment of public moneys 1,718,504 83 
Proceeds of gospel and school 

lands 988 97 

Received from regents 20,3S5 06 



Rural 
districts 



$799,475 14 

2,022,701 38 



30,139 57 

59,438 28 



31,128 54 
79,823 34 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 87 



Rural 

Payments Cities districts Total 

Raised by tax $S, 841, 425 12 $4, 270, 034 64 $l. n ,, 117, 459 7b 

Estimated value of teachers' 

board 37,499 51 37.499 51 

From all other sources 1,769.394 60 803.S67 72 2,573,262 32 

Total $14,547,197 72 $5,029,159 24 $22,576,356 96 



For teachers - wanes $7,264,613 25 $4,78S.404 01 $12,053,017 26 

For libraries 59,626 S2 58,554 87 US, 181 69 

For school apparatus 379,974 35 75,179 75 455,154 10 

For schoolhouses, sii.s, etc 2.:il6.9:.o 21 1,222.345 66 4,139,295 87 

For incidental expenses 1,480,580 89 1,055,458 15 2,536,039 04 

Forfeited, with supervisors 6,883 13 6.883 13 

Amount on hand at end of year. 2,445,452 20 822,333 67 3,267,785 87 

Total $14,547,197 72 $8,029,159 24 $22,576,356 96 



Deducting from the total the amount on hand, July 
31, 1894, the actual expense of maintaining- the schools, 
for that year was $19,308,571.09 or $2,133,735.80 more 
than they cost for the year immediately preceding 
Superintendent Crooker's accession. The following 
tabic shows the receipts and payments on account of 
the state school tax, otherwise known as the free school 
fund, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1894 : 

Receipts 

Balance on hand October 1, 1893 f 409,093 82 

Interest on deposits 8,713 82 

State tax 3,957,297 78 

Allegany county 10 

Hamilton county 100 00 

Total |4,375,805 82 

Payments 

Apportionment to count ies $3,192,351 47 

Supplemental apportionment 4,205 00 

Teachers' institutes 35,222 74 

Teachers' training classes 52,527 54 

Albany state normal college 2(5,287 62 

Brockport state normal school 2(1,142 55 

Buffalo state normal school 19,000 60 

Cortland state normal school 23,465 36 

Fredonia state normal school 19,500 00 

Geneseo state normal school 21, 12!) 17 

New Paltz state normal school 19,000 00 

Oneonta state normal school 21,969 -*!t 

Oswego state normal school 21,000 00 

Plattsburg state normal school 20,768 18 



Department of Public Instruction 

Potsdam state normal school $23,336 55 

Indian schools 4,263 28 

Indian youth at normal schools 750 00 

County treasurers' fees 6,496 52 

School commissioners' salaries 114,000 00 

Printing and binding school registers 

and trustees' reports. 5,200 00 

Printing consolidated school law 2,000 00 

American Museum of Natural History. 14,316 39 

Uniform examiners 4,059 02 

Balance on hand September 30, L894. . . 401,814 49 

Total $4,375,805 82 



The library law of 1892 required each district to 
raise a certain amount as a condition precedent to 
receiving an equal amount from the state for the pur- 
chase of books, the beneficial effects of which were seen 
in the resurrection of an interest in the school libraries, 
appreciable additions to their shelves and a revival 
of their usefulness. In 1893, the legislature authorized 
the erection of an additional normal school at Jamaica, 
which was opened in 1897. 
tra'tioit'of ^ n this rey i ew * "the administration of the present 
snuerin- superintendent, Charles R. Skinner, has now been 

tendon* 

skinner reached. He assumed office April 7, 1895, with an 
acquaintance with the common school system, acquired 
from a previous service of nine years in the depart- 
ment. He had been deeply interested in its historical 
development and, he trusts, appreciated the labors of 
his predecessors, all of whom had been capable, and 
some of them distinguished promoters of the educational 
progress that New York had made from the time of 
Gideon Hawley to the closing years of the nineteenth 
century. He was also aware, however, that there were 
still weaknesses to be remedied, as well as powers to 
be strengthened. To some of these he called attention 
in his first annual report (1896). He held that while 
the teaching force had steadily advanced in efficiency, 
the principal defect in the system was along the lines 
of supervision — that while the main body of commis- 
sioners was composed of earnest, conscientious and 
fairly W(»ll-equipped officers, there were some who could 
not, as the result of an examination, secure the higher 
grades of certificates issued by the department. He, 



A REVIEW OP ITS ADMINISTRATION 89 

therefore, proposed an educational qualification on the Jj£™*," 
part of candidates for that office, and that a higher jmaiiflca- 
salary should be attached to it. These recommenda- commis- 
tions were incorporated in a bill introduced in the pVopo'sed 
legislature of 1895, but which was not acted upon; 
like recommendations have since been made and like 
hills have since been drafted, but the reform has not 
yet eventuated. He also earnestly advocated the adop- 
tion of the township, or some unit larger than the 
present system, as the only means by which the greatly 
desirable consolidation of weak districts could be 
effected, and the decline in the efficiency of the rural 
schools arrested. This too is still a hope and not a 
fact, although, as has been said, it has long had the 
support of the best educational thought, and the present 
superintendent, in unison with his predecessors, has 
constantly and consistently urged legislative action in 
its behalf. 

In 1895, the statutory school age, for good and suf centennial 
ficient reasons, was fixed at from five to eighteen years, common 
This year commemorated the 100th anniversary of the SCMOOls 
passage of the law establishing the common schools 
of the state, at the instance of Governor George Clin- 
ton. Of this, the chief magistrate was mindful. Gov- 
ernor Morton alluded to it in his annual message, and, 
early in April, issued the following proclamation: 
"A century of magnificent achievement in public educa- 
tion in this state will be completed on April 9, the 
anniversary of the signing, by Governor George Clinton 
of chapter 75 of the laws of 1795, entitled 'An act 
for the encouragement of schools,' passed by the legis- 
lature of that year, upon the governor's recommenda- 
tion. The commanding position held by our state in 
commerce, manufactures, science, the arts, agriculture 
and in educational progress, is largely the result of 
the wise and liberal policy of our successive state 
administrations toward the common schools. One hun- 
dred years of energetic and successful educational 
effort has followed that important measure, and bears 
abundant testimony to the wise discernment of the 
first governor of the commonwealth and to the loyalty 
of the people who supported his purpose in making 
the first generous provision for carrying his views into 
effect. If we, of today, emulate that devotion to the 
instruction of our youth which characterized the 



90 Department of Public Instruction 

founders of the system and makes this anniversary con- 
spicuous in our annals, those who follow in the century 
to come will write our names, as we now write those 
of 1795, with grateful remembrance in the history of 
education in the state of New York. It will increase 
the regard in which those who laid the foundations 
of our educational system are held if, on Tuesday next, 
we commemorate in some fitting manner, their services 
and recount the blessings reaped from their labors. 
I, therefore, recommend to all principals, teachers and 
others in authority in the schools, academies and col- 
leges throughout the state, that they devote some por- 
tion, at least, of that day, to appropriate exercises by 
the pupils, their officers and friends, in recognition of 
this important anniversary." Coincident with the 
proclamation of the governor, the superintendent issued 
an appeal for the observance of the day in the schools, 
which was generally responded to in exercises indi- 
cative of its significance. The department also pub- 
lished a centennial educational chart, a copy of which 
was furnished to every school which would properly 
display the same in the school building. Thus atten- 
tion was directed to what had been done in the 100 
years, for popular education, and pride in the past 
could but incite effort to perfect that which so 
devotedly begun had been so intelligently conducted. 
The fla»? Eighteen hundred and ninetv-five is also memorable 

for the passage of an act ordaining that the authorities 
of every public school in the several cities and districts 
of the state shall purchase a United States flag, flag- 
staff and the necessary appliances therefor and display 
such flag upon or near the school building during school 
hours and at such other times as the said authorities 
may direct. This law was reenacted and amplified in 
189S ; and it was made the duty of the state superinten- 
dent to prepare, for the use of the schools, a program, 
embracing a salute to the flag at the opening of each 
day of school, and such other patriotic exercises, as 
may by him be deemed expedient in connection there- 
with, and to arrange for the observance in the schools 
of the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, of decora- 
tion and flag days and of such other legal holidays of 
like character as may be designated by law. The super 
intendent is bound to say that nothing within the range 
of his administration has given him higher satisfaction 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 91 

than the operation and enforcement of this law. He 
believes that patriotism should be impressed upon the 
children of the schools equally with its assertion by 
adults in the assemblies of the people, or on the battle 
fields of the republic ; that not only should the love of 
country, which, if not inherent in human nature, has 
such early manifestation as to be tantamount to it — - 
in barbaric as well as in civilized races — be cultivated 
and strengthened, but that the rising generations 
should learn why they ought to love their country — ■ 
what there is in its history to admire, in its institu- 
tions to cherish, in its heroes and statesmen to emulate, 
that they afford training in manhood and citizenship, 
as well as in grammar and arithmetic. In so far as 
his influence could avail, the superintendent has 
exerted it to have American history, civics and cognate 
subjects given greater scope and prominence in the 
curriculum of the schools Hum they formerly had with, 
he is assured, a constantly increasing diligence and 
interest in their pursuit by pupils. The flag law has, 
upon the whole, been obeyed by the local school officers 
and the various patriotic anniversaries have been 
cheerfully observed, in accordance with programs fur- 
nished by the department. There is inspiration to 
patriotism in the flag. No child can behold it, as it 
floats above the schoolhouse, without wanting to know 
its meaning; and Decoration day and the birthdays 
of the founder and of the savior of the nation each 
convey persuasive lessons, are educating forces. No 
more beneficent law than this has recently been placed 
upon the statute books, and the superintendent rejoices 
that it has been permitted him to be instrumental in 
its execution. 

The superintendent also in his first report had occa- JjJ^JJ^ 
sion to allude to the general and ardent observance of 
Arbor day, saying Unit, since 1S88, there had been 
145,241 trees planted in and about school grounds, that 
the annual attention to the day will prove potent in 
bringing out the many elements of beauty and utility 
in tree and flower, and that it will be a powerful factor 
in the educational history of the state. He is pleased 
to add that his prediction has been justified. Appro- 
priate exercises for the day have uniformly been out- 
lined by the department, the planting of trees, usually 
with names of national, state or local significance 



<J2 



Department op Public Instruction 



Centennial 
of the 
birth of 
Horace 

Mann 



Women 
commis- 
sioners 



liicensinf? 
of teach- 
ers in 
cities 



affixed to them, has steadily gone on, and the tendency 
to beantifv school surroundings is still growing, while, 
incidental t» the celebration, is the encouragement to 
the study of nature by the pupils. 

On the 14th of May, 1896, Hie one hundredth anniver- 
sary of the birth of Horace Mann was fittingly observed 
by schools and friends of education throughout the 
state, at the suggestion of the department. This great 
educator, who revolutionized the school system of 
Massachusetts, and was especially active in founding 
normal schools, did much unselfish work for education 
in New York, frequently delivering addresses, replete 
with valuable thought, at our educational gatherings, 
and never failing in his commendation of our system, 
in advice to those officially charged with its care, or 
in helpfulness to our teaching force. It was peculiarly 
appropriate that his life and services should thus be 
acknowledged by the state that is so deeply indebted 
to him. 

Among the topics treated by the superintendent in 
his second annual report 1 1897) are two, upon which he 
has since seen no reason to change his mind. They 
are those relative to women commissioners and city 
teachers. He found, as he still finds it, a pleasure to 
praise the faithful and excellent work done by women 
as commissioners. They are usually exact and con- 
scientious, and, as a great majority of teachers are 
women, a woman's sympathy with them is cordially 
appreciated. There was no mistake in the law, when 
it made women eligible to the position, and it is to 
be regretted that they are constitutionally debarred 
from voting for candidates therefor. In 1895, a law 
was passed providing that, after January 1, 1.897, no 
person should be licensed or employed to teach in the 
primary or grammar schools of the cities, who had not 
had throe years successful experience in teaching, or, 
in lieu thereof, had not had a three years course in 
and been graduated from a high school or academy 
having a course of study of not less than three years, 
approved by the superintendent of public instruction, 
or from some institution of learning of equal or higher 
rank, approved by the same authority, and who, sub- 
sequently to such graduation took a course in a school 
or class for the professional training of teachers, hav- 
ing a course of study of not less than 3S weeks, ap- 



A REVIEW OE ITS ADMINISTRATION 93 

proved also by the superintendent. Nothing, however, 
in the act was to be construed as restricting any city 
board of education from requiring such additional 
qualifications for teachers (as some have so required) 
as said board might determine or precluding it from 
accepting the diploma of any normal and training 
school in the state, or a state certificate, as an equiv- 
alent for the preparation indicated. This act was 
deemed by educational experts to be one of the most 
progressive measures adopted, in many years, and its 
operation, at once confirmed their estimate. Incom- 
petent teachers arc thus excluded from service in the 
cities, and a premium is put upon thorough prepara- 
tion therefor. In conformity with the provisions of 
the law, the superintendent draft< d a minimum course 
of study to which secondary institutions, as well as 
boards of education, have adapted themselves. 

The superintendent opens his third annual report Las * an - 

x l 11 ii a 1 re- 

(1898), the last of his first term, with the financial port <>f su- 
exhibit that the amount expended upon the schools eniTsictn- " 
had reached vast proportions, illustrative of the great- "/^ fil " st 
ness and liberality of the commonwealth. The total 
cost of the schools for the year ending July 31, 1897, 
was |2G,689,85C, an increase in one year of $3,516,026 
and in 12 years of $13,401,870. The cities spent 
$19,152,014, an increase in one year of $3,610,573, and 
in 12 years of $11,274,047, the towns spent $7,537,212, 
a decrease in one year of $94,547, but an increase in 
12 years of $2,130,823. The cost had thus increased 
more than 100 per cent in 12 years. During this 
period, the number of teachers employed for the legal 
term increased 2S^ per cent; the amount of teachers' 
salaries 55^ per cent ; the number of children of school 
age had decreased nearly four per cent, due entirely 
to the change in school age; the average daily attend- 
ance had increased 31 per cent, and the amount ex- 
pended for schoolhouses, sites, furniture and repairs 
had increased 270 per cent. The invested common 
school fund was $4,473,140.77. 

During the year 1897, a judicial decision was ren The school 
dered, so important in its bearings, as to make a some-Mta^ai 
what extended reference to it proper. It was the affir- ln " 41tutlon 
mation of the power of the state to compel a municipal- 
ity, or school district, to provide and maintain adequate 
educational facilities, or, otherwise put, that the school 
is a state and not a local institution. The issue arose 



94 Department of Public Instruction 

in the city of Watervliet, where a bi-partisan board 
of education of four members, owing to a deadlock, 
neglected and refused to appoint teachers, janitors and 
other officers, at the opening of the school year, Sep 
tember 7, and the children were forced to seek instruc- 
tion elsewhere, or roam the streets. An appeal Mas 
made to the state superintendent by two members of 
the board to effect the removal of the two other mem- 
bers. This petition the superintendent did not feel at 
liberty to grant, but he ordered the board to open the 
schools on or before the 4th day of October and that the 
necessary teachers, etc., should be appointed. The day 
passed, without compliance with the order, and the 
superintendent, concluding that, under the mandate of 
the constitution and the provisions of the consolidated 
school law, he was clothed with the requisite authority, 
directed an employee of the department to proceed to 
Watervliet and there act temporarily as superintendent 
of schools, at the same time appointing a full corps 
of teachers, attendance officers, janitors and a 
librarian. The schcols were thus opened October 5, 
about 1,400 pupils being present. Two residents of the 
city made application to the Supreme Court for an 
injunction restricting the state superintendent from 
interfering with their local school system. The case 
was heard before Justice Alden Chester, at a special 
term at Albany, in November, the Honorable Danforth 
E. Ainsworth, deputy superintendent of public instruc- 
tion appearing for the department, and the Honorable 
Edwin Countryman for the applicants. Justice Ches- 
ter denied the application in an elaborate opinion, up- 
holding the action of the superintendent in all particu- 
lars, upon the ground that he had jurisdiction in the 
matter, which he rightfully exercised for the benefit of 
the schools, that " the mandate of the constitution can- 
not be nullified at the will of an} r local board, failing 
to discharge the duties imposed upon it by law, but 
that the power exists to compel obedience to this re- 
quirement, and this power is lodged in the state super- 
intendent of public instruction." No appeal was taken 
from Justice Chester's ruling, and it stands as law and 
precedent, not probably to be again questioned. Con- 
nected with school affairs in Watervliet was a decision 
L , i, e oo e i cnlar of the superintendent, dated .May 15, 1897, to the effect 
that the wearing of an unusual garb, used exclusively 



A REVIEW OP ITS ADMINISTRATION 9E 

by members of one religious sect, as indicating affilia- 
tion with that sect, -by the teachers in a public school, 
constitutes a sectarian influence, which cannot be 
tolerated and must be prohibited. Superintendent, 
Draper had made a like decision, ten years previously, 
and it had not been modified or disapproved by bis 
successors. It has the force and effect of a statute, 
and is based upon the secular character of the schools 
which must be maintained alike against technical 
evasion and open assault. 

In his annual report (1899) the superintendent says 
that compulsory education in this state is no longer 
a mere pretence, but an accomplished fact. The neces- compnt- 
sity and propriety of compelling the attendance of cation, 
children upon the schools had long engaged the atten- 
tion of the department and had by degrees been 
resolved into law. The first act was that of 1853, which 
provided that any vagrant child, in any city or incor- 
porated village, between the ages of five and 14 years, 
upon complaint of any citizen on oath, should be 
brought before a magistrate for examination, and 
the parent, guardian or master of such child should 
be notified to attend such examination, and if the com- 
plaint should be established, the magistrate was to 
require from such parent, guardian or master a 
contract in writing with the corporate authorities 
that such child should be sent to some school 
at least four mouths in each year, until he or 
she should become 11 years old. The law also 
imposed pecuniary penalties for nonfulfillment of the 
contract, directed the commitment of a vagrant child, 
who had no parent, guardian or master, to an institu- 
tion for instruction, and authorized the corporate 
authorities to provide suitable places for the reception 
of such. New York was thus the first state, except 
Massachusetts, to enact a compulsory education law. 
It was, however, enforced spasmodically and irration- 
ally, if, it may be said, that it was enforced at all. 
Public sentiment was adverse or had not been educated 
up to it. The statistics of school attendance, from 
18GG to 1873, show that from 55 to 60 per cent of the 
children over six and under 17 years old, were out of 
school every day— a grievous condition, perilous to the 
state. 



96 Department of Public Instruction 

In 1874, the second compulsory act was ordained and 
became operative, January 1, 1875. Although an im- 
provement upon the statute of 1853, it was defectively 
and carelessly drawn, and inadequate in its sanctions. 
It required all children, between 8 and 11 years 
of age, of sufficient physical and mental strength, 
to attend school at "least fourteen weeks in each year, 
eight of which should be consecutive. Local school 
authorities were empowered to enforce attendance and 
to furnish suitable places for the instruction, dis- 
cipline and confinement of truant children. It was a 
species of local option and depended entirely upon pub- 
lic sentiment for its validity. Amended in 1S76, it 
still failed of its object. In his annual report (1888) 
Superintendent Draper said: "There is a large 
uneducated class in this state, and our statistics show 
that it is growing larger. * * * To be sure, we 
have a compulsory education law upon our statute 
books, but it is a compulsory education law that does 
not compel. It has never been acted under to any con- 
siderable extent, and this being so after fourteen years 
of trial, it is fair to presume that it never will be. In 
my opinion, there are good reasons why it has never 
accomplished what was desired of it. In the first place, 
it requires members of boards of education to look after 
and apprehend delinquent children, and it is un- 
reasonable to expect that officials elected only to 
manage the schools, and who serve without pay, will 
devote the necessary time, or that they will engage in 
work which should devolve upon a policeman or con- 
stable, or some other officer specially charged with and 
paid for such service. Again, the penalties provided 
for in the act run mainly against children, and no peo- 
ple will be swift to enforce penalties against children 
for delinquency, not amounting to crime, for which 
they are not properly so answerable as are their parents 
or guardians. The penalties in the act which go 
against parents are mere fines, so inconsiderable as to 
be ridiculous, and the machinery for collecting them is 
too cumbersome and expensive to be commonly made 
use of. Moreover, the act requires that children under 
11 years of age should attend for at least fourteen 
weeks in the year. Attendance for so small a part of 
the year is hardly of enough importance to justify any 
serious effort to insure it. Again, the law does not re- 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 97 

quire communities to act in the matter, nor does it pro- 
vide any adequate school facilities for the accommoda- 
tion of delinquents if brought in. There are other diffi- 
culties in the way of the enforcement of the compulsory 
education act, but it is unnecessary to occupy space in 
referring to them. Indeed, the fact that the act has 
remained a dead letter so long is. of itself, sufficient 
reason for looking for some more practical way for 
enforcing attendance upon the schools." 

Superintendent Draper requested Sherman Williams, 
then Superintendent of Schools at Glens Falls, to in- 
vestigate the subject of compulsory education. Dr. 
Williams, in conformity with this request, did so and 
in an able report, of date December 2, 1887, concluded 
that New York should at once take comprehensive, de- 
cisive and mandatory action upon the matter, but it 
was not until 1S94 that the present law was enacted. 
It has since received some modifications and, as thus 
modified, is incorporated in the consolidated school law 
of 1902. It is greatly to the credit of Dr. Williams that 
his recommendations are substantially embraced in the 
law, the main provisions of which are as follows: All 
children between S and 12 years of age. in physical and 
mental well being, must attend public school for the 
full yearly period; all children between 12 and 14 years, 
at least SO days, and the entire time, if not regularly 
and lawfully engaged in some useful employment; and 
all between II and 1G years, for the full school period, 
unless in employment as aforesaid; parents must cause 
their children to attend school unless they can prove 
their inability to compel such attendance, violation of 
this requirement being made a misdemeanor punishable 
by fine or imprisonment; it isalso made a misdemeanor, 
with like alternative penalties attached, for any person, 
firm or corporation to employ any child when, with the 
foregoing definitions, it is imperative that he or she 
shall be in school; the local school authorities shall 
appoint, and may remove at pleasure, one or more 
attendance officers, fixing their ( ompensation as a local 
charge, who may arrest truant children and a magis- 
trate may commit habitual and incorrigible ones to a 
truant school, to be provided by the school authorities, 
or such may be remanded to private schools, orphans' 
homes, or similar institutions, controlled by persons of 
the same religious faith as that of those in parental 
7 



9S Department of Public Instruction 

relation to such children, to be there held until such 
time as it may be practicable to assign them to the 
schools they should lawfully attend ; the state superin- 
tendent may withhold one-half of all public moneys 
from any city or district which, in his judgment, will- 
fully omits and refuses to enforce the provisions of the 
law ; and he is authorized to employ such assistants as 
mem^anfl ne ma J deem necessary to administer the law. As the 
reports un- [ aw f igt)± f 00 ^ effect nearly coincidentlv with the 

der the * ' 

compel- accession of the present superintendent, it became his 
cation law duty to start its machinery and watch its workings. 
of 1894 He at ouce a pp i n ted Arthur M. Wright as chief in- 
spector, with A. Edson Hall and William J. Barr as 
assistants. Messrs Hall and Barr are still in the 
service, with John J. N. Byrnes as an additional assist- 
ant. James D. Sullivan is chief inspector. Beneficent 
results immediately occurred. From the first annual 
report of Mr. Wright the following figures are taken : 

Statistics of Towns 

1893-1S94 1894-1895 

Number of children between 5 ami 21 residing; in 
the districts 723.440 694.917 

Average number of days of school 175 173 

Number of children registered as attending 
school ~ 535,635 5H.730 

Average daily attendance 313,109 328,580 

Whole number of days attendance at school 55.S60.721 57,xi:\:ui 

Per cent, of registration to number res ding in 
the districts 74.04 77.95 

Per cent, of average daily af tendance to num- 
ber registered 58.45 60.65 



Statistics of ('Hies 

1893-1894 1894-1895 

Number of children between 5 and 21 residing in 

the cities 1.20S.SS5 1,251.328 

Average number of days of school 196 1S7 

Number of children registered as attending 

school ' 5S9.333 616,613 

Average daily attendance 407,995 429.114 

Whole number of da.\s aiiei 79.669.04S 81,982,010 

Per cent, of registration to number residing in 

the district 48.75 49.28 

Per cent, of daily attendance to number regis- 
tered C9.22 69.59 

In 1902 Mr Sullivan was enabled to say : " The 
tables show for rural districts 13,491 less children, as 
compared with 1901, and a decline in registration of 
10,707, while the same tables show a gain in aggregate ( 
attendance of 517,903 and an increase in average daily 
attendance of 2,255 ; and we also have a gain in average 
daily attendance for the entire state of 35,241 giving 
us the highest average daily attendance ever reached in 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 99 

the history of our schools. Other figures are equally 
interesting as indicating how the compulsory law is 
working out its marvelous results with less friction 
annually ; 26,237 truants were arrested, as against 
29,171 for the year 1901— a decrease of 2,934. These 
figures might indicate a questionable relaxation in the 
enforcement of the law, were it not for the fact that 
we have an increase in average daily attendance of 
35,211 for the same period as shown above. The num- 
ber of parents prosecuted during the year, as compared 
with 1901, also presents an interesting computation. 
In 1901, 921 parents were prosecuted for violation of 
the statute, Avhile but 679 were prosecuted during the 
past year — a decrease of 245. Do not these figures 
clearly indicate that parents and those in parental re- 
lation are coming more and more to understand the re- 
quirements of the law and cheerfully complying with 
its mandates?" And the superintendent could say 
also: " For the year 1S91 the per cent of enrollment to 
school population was only 64, while for the school 
year ending July 31, 1902, the per cent of enrollment 
to school population was nearly 91 — a net gain of 27 
per cent; and, while in making the computation, some 
note is to be taken of the reduction of the maximum 
school age from 21 to 18, yet the marvelous result of 
27 per cent increase is largely to be credited to a 
judicious enforcement of the law. Every year has 
marked the steady ingathering from the streets into our 
schools of thousands of neglected children, as well as 
many more who were being illegally employed." The 
superintendent sugg< sts the urgent need of at least two 
state truant schools, or truant homes, and also that 
the present laws should he so amended as to provide 
that, after careful investigation by an attendance offi- 
cer, a requisition from the board of education or trustee 
for books and clothing to enable poor children to attend 
school should be promptly honored by local poor 
authorities, and the same be made a legal charge 
against the town. 

The superintendent has noted, during his term, with Adornment 
satisfaction, the growing public interest taken, not only g^und^ 1 
in the improvement in school structures throughout the 
state, but also in the efforts made and taste displayed 
in beautifying their surroundings. Something of this 
is to be attributed to the exercises of Arbor day and the 



100 Department op Public Instruction 

trend thus imparted and something to the consecration 
of generous-hearted citizens, in that behalf. Special 
acknowledgment, as the superintendent observes in his 
annual report (1903), is due to Professor John W. 
Spencer, head of the bureau of nature study in Cornell 
university, for his incitement to teachers and pupils to 
adorn school grounds with trees and shrubbery and 
flowers. In 1902, Prof. Spencer received reports from 
500 school districts which, through his encouragement, 
had made their grounds attractive. For several years, 
by the liberality of the Hon. William A. Wadsworth, 
of Geneseo, the superintendent has been able to offer 
cash prizes — $ 100 for the best kept school grounds and 
$50 for the second. These prizes have been duly 
awarded and photographs of the grounds thus selected 
have appeared with the annual reports of the Depart- 
ment. In 1902 also, the Youth's Companion, of Boston, 
gave United States flags to the 20 school districts 
and, in the current year, six sets of historical engrav- 
ings to the 500, manifesting the most interest and enter- 
prise in adorning their grounds. These agencies, and 
such as these, are tokens of a movement which will go 
on until all our school grounds shall " blossom as the 
rose." 
romeii * n * lie barter of Cornell university, it was stipu- 

unfversity hired that in return for the permission to that institu- 
state " tion to receive the land scrip granted to the state, by 
shii?s ar " the act of Congress, July 2, 1865, it should " annually 
receive students from each assembly district, free of 
any tuition fee." The university was disposed to con- 
strue the intention of the legislature to be that each 
district was entitled to but one student, at the same 
time, but the state authorities insisted that one should 
be admitted each year. The university yielded the 
point, and 512 free scholarships were thus provided, 
upon competitive examination, under the regulation of 
the superintendent. Until 1887, however, not one-half 
of these scholarships were filled. In that year a law 
was passed awarding scholarships left vacant in any 
district to candidates in other districts. Thereafter 
the number was kept full, and. if any student left 
before graduation, the superintendent filled the vacancy 
from eligible names in the list of contemporaneous can- 
didates. By the Constitution of 1894, the number of 
assembly districts was enlarged from 128 to 150; but, 



therein 



A REVIEW OF ,"S ADMINISTRATION 101 

at the first, the superintendent ordered the Cornell ap- 
pointments upon the original basis, believing that the 
university had equities in the ease which deserved con- 
sideration. He recommended to the legislature that the 
free assembly district scholarships should be increased 
to GOO and that the state should establish at Cornell 
a state pedagogical department, or school of pedagogy, 
for the professional training of college graduates, and 
others of equivalent standing, in the theory and prac- 
tice of education, thus training them for positions as 
teachers in high schools, academies and normal schools, 
or as superintendents of schools. The state took no 
action, but the superintendent, in 1900, felt constrained 
to grant 150 scholarships, and the university again 
yielded, reserving, however, its equities in the premises 
and claiming that the cost of the tuition of 600 students 
would be $175,000 a year, while the income of the pro- 
ceeds ($688,570.12) was but $31,428.80. This is the 
existing status. The superintendent still believes that 
in justice to Cornell and for the welfare of education, 
the state should support a school of pedagogy there. 
It may be added that there is a department of pedagogy 
in Cornell, consisting of a professor and a lecturer, both 
of whom are paid by the university. 

In 1903, the superintendent discusses at some length The^Bibie 
the question of reading the Bible in the public schools, public 
He is loath to adhere to the ruling of his predecessors 
in relation thereto. He alludes to the decision of 
Superintendent Weaver, supplemented by nearly every 
superintendent since, that " no teacher has a right to 
consume any portion of the regular school hours in con- 
ducting religious exercises, especially when objection 
is raised;" but says that the Weaver decision, in the 
specific case, was against religious exercises, according 
to the usage and practice of a religious sect and that 
" there is a vast distinction between exercises of that 
character and the reading of the Bible without note 
or comment." He finds that a recent decision of the 
supreme court of Nebraska, often referred to as pro- 
hibitory of Bible reading in the schools, is precisely 
in line with that of Superintendent Weaver, and that 
such reading is either authorized or permitted in nearly 
every state of the union, California alone constitution- 
ally prohibiting it, and the attorney-general of Wash- 
ington having written an opinion adverse to it. The 



102 Department of Public Instruction 

reading is not generally practiced in Louisiana, Nevada, 
Idaho, Oregon or Utah. The school law of New York 
is silent concerning it, but by special statutes the board 
of education of the city of New York is forbidden to 
exclude the reading of the Scriptures, without note or 
comment, in its schools. He says distinctly that "local 
authorities are empowered by the school law to estab- 
lish courses of study to be followed by the schools under 
their charge. I think this may fairly be construed to 
include the opening exercises of such schools, subject, 
of course, to the right of appeal to this Department 
from an abuse of this power by local authorities. 
Whenever the practice thus established shall violate 
the provisions of the Constitution, and the opening 
exercises or course of study, as prescribed by them, shall 
include the teaching of any sectarian tenet or doctrine, 
I should feel impelled, in case of appeal, to prohibit 
such exercises. But where the Scriptures are read, as 
the statute provides they shall be in the city of New 
York, without note or comment, by a public school 
teacher in a public school of this state, in the presence 
of Hie pupils thereof, as part of the opening exercises, 
I shall deem it my duty to rule that such practice is 
not in violation of Hie Constitution or statutes of this 
state." He refers approvingly to a volume of " Read- 
ings from the Bible selected for schools," consisting of 
selections from the Old and New Testaments, prepared 
by a committee of four, of whom a member of the 
Roman Catholic communion was one, and to whivh a 
Jewish rabbi gave valuable assistance, and suggests 
that this work might be used in the schools, wherever 
the reading of the Bible is a cause of contention. 
"•Sca'uL During nearly the whole period of the service of the 
present superintendent various plans for the unifica- 
tion of the two great departments of education have 
been proposed, and have been prolific of much serious 
and some acrimonious discussion in educational circles, 
official and popular assemblies and the press. The late 
constitutional convention expended much time upon 
the subject, in the hearing before the committee on edu- 
cation of proponents of many and diverse schemes, and 
to debate upon the floor, but was unable to formulate 
a declaratory article thereon, limiting itself to con- 
ferring constitutional entity upon the regents, re- 
affirming the mandate to the legislature to maintain 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 103 

free schools and the inviolability of the school funds 
and prohibiting state aid to denominational schools. 
In the agitation of the last decade, the superintendent 
has been involved necessarily, restricting himself, how- 
ever, to the vindication of two principles, which he re- 
gards as cardinal and fundamental, viz.: that, wiih or 
without unification, the statutory functions of the 
Department must be preserved intact and public sec- 
ondary education must be remanded wholly to its super- 
vision and control. He would draw tin 1 line of 
demarcation clearly and determinedly between tax- 
supported and non tax-supported schools. This would 
be at once a democratic and intelligent definition of 
the province of each department and an allaying of 
friction between the two arising, and that only, from 
the dual jurisdiction of tax-supported secondary educa- 
tion that has heretofore obtained. Regarding the ad- 
ministration of his department ;;s a sacred trust, he can 
do no less than uphold it in its integrity, and ho seeks 
to do no more. His attitude is that of defense and not 
of aggression. Thus he says, in 1899 : " The legislation 
of 1853 permitting the organization of academic depart- 
ments in certain public schools is primarily responsible 
for this anomalous condition of our school system. 
* * * The public school, maintained by public 
taxation, no matter where it is situated, ought to be 
under the supervision and control of a single depart- 
ment of the state government. To maintain two 
departments to perform the work, which could better 
be done by one, with greater economy to the stale and 
more efficiency, is so plainly unwise and against all 
principles of government, that it is surprising, not only 
that the state ever entered upon the system in 1853, 
but that it has continued it so long, and that too, when 
there is plainly a. natural line of demarcation between 
the work to be done by these two departments." 

Since 1898, a number of bills of various tenor, pro- 
viding either for demarcation or for unification, have 
been introduced in the legislature, one proposed by the 
state statutory revision and one emanating from a com- 
mission appointed by Governor Roosevelt. To both 
these, the superintendent accorded his assent, inasmuch 
as they recognized the line of demarcation upon which 
he has, from the first, insisted. Bills under the 
auspices of the regents, and others under those of the 



104 Department of Public Instruction 

superintendent, have also been before the legislature, 
but none has reached a vote in either house. Dur- 
ing the year 1903 the superintendent, upon con- 
sultation with and the approval of leading educators, 
including college presidents, normal school principals 
and city superintendents, matured a plan embodying 
the following features : the creation of a state board of 
education consisting, at the beginning, of nine members 
of the board of regents, to be selected by lot, with 
respective terms of from one to nine years, also deter- 
mined by lot, with future members to be chosen by the 
legislature, each for nine years, with each judicial dis- 
trict of the state finally to be represented; such board 
to elect a commissioner of education, to serve during 
its pleasure, choice not to be limited to any present 
citizen of the state, who shall be its executive officer, 
having general supervision of primary, secondary and 
higher education, with power to create such depart- 
ments as, in his judgment, shall be necessary, and to 
appoint deputies, subject to the approval of the board; 
neither the State Superintendent, any member of the 
present board of regents, nor any person holding an 
appointment under either to he eligible as I he first 
commissioner; the first commissioner (the board 
appointing his successors, as indicated) to be either 
named in the bill or elected by I he legislature; and the 
board of education, which shall also be the board of 
regeuts, reserving to itself the right to adopt regula- 
tions, confer degrees, guard the entrance to the legal, 
medical and all oilier professions, (he granting of char- 
ters to higher educational institutions, with such other 
powers as it now possesses, nut specially vested in the 
commissioner. The main features of this plan were 
incorporated in a bill introduced in the assembly by 
Mr. L. L. Davis and referred to the committee on pub- 
lic education. Meanwhile the legislature of 1903 had 
appointed a joint committee to investigate the subject 
of educational unification and report to the legislature 
of 1904. Of this committee Senator Merton E. Lewis 
was chairman. That committee made an elaborate re- 
port which was transmitted to the legislature Febru- 
ary 3, 1904, and a bill, subsequently amended in certain 
details, was introduced in both houses of the legisla- 
ture and is now a law. Its principal provisions are. as 
follows: The corporation designated by the constitu- 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 105 

tion as " the University of the State of New York " 
shall be governed and its corporate powers exercised by 
eleven regents, the same to be elected by the legisla- 
ture from those previously holding such offices, and so 
far as may be one from each judicial district, for terms 
respectively of one, two, Ihree, four, five, six, seven, 
eight, nine, ten and eleven years, from the first day of 
April, 190-1, the terms of regents, previously in office, 
terminating on said first day of April except as before 
provided. Successors to the regents thus elected are 
to be chosen by the legislature in the second week of 
February in each year. Within ten days after the 
passage of this act, the legislature shall elect a com- 
missioner of education, who may or may not be a 
resident of the state of New York. He shall receive 
an annual salary of $7,500 and $1,500 in lieu of travel- 
ing and other expenses. He shall enter upon the per- 
formance of his duties April 1, 1901. He shall serve 
for the term of six years, unless sooner removed for 
cause by the board of regents, and the legislature shall 
fill any vacancy that may occur during such period of 
six years, and all successors in office after such term 
of six years, shall serve during the pleasure of the board 
of regents. The offices of Superintendent of Public 
Instruction and secretary of the regents are abolished 
from April 1, 1901, and their powers and duties shall 
be exercised and performed by the commissioner of 
education. All the powers and duties of the board of 
regents in relation to the supervision of elementary and 
secondary schools, including all schools except colleges, 
technical and professional schools, are devolved upon 
the commissioner of education, who shall also act as 
the executive officer of the regents. 

It has, of course, been noted that in the statistics defectives' "* 
that have been herein tabulated, appropriations to 
schools for defectives and for Indians have been in- 
cluded. This review would be incomplete if some addi- 
tional facts concerning these were not presented. The 
formal connection between the public school system of 
the state and institutions for the education of defec- 
tives dates from the establishment of the Department 
of Public Instruction. In 1818, private benevolence 
opened a school in New York city for the instruction 
of deaf-mutes according to methods recently developed 
in Europe. In 1833, a school for educating the blind 



106 Department op Public Instruction 

was similarly established in the same city. In both 
these institutions certain pupils had been maintained 
at public expense, but, previously to 1853, there had 
been but liltle systematic utilization of their advan- 
tages. Among the powers and duties, devolved upon 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, were the 
appointment to these two institutions of pupils to be 
supported by the state, and a general oversight of their 
care and education. These appointments, however, 
were restricted to those who had been residents of the 
state for three years, and who were between the ages 
of 12 and 25. The institutions are first mentioned in 
the report of the superintendent for 1855, when there 
were 10!) pupils in the school for the blind and 204 in 
that for deaf-mutes. In response to successive recom- 
mendations of state superintendents, the minimum 
age limit was reduced to eight years and finally to five, 
while the maximum for deaf-mutes was abolished, but 
the three years' residence 1 requirement remained, until, 
in 1903, it was reduced to one year. In .March, 1807, 
a school was opened in New York city, chiefly through 
Hebrew benevolence for "the improved instruction of 
deaf-mutes according to the articulate methods of 
Germany." Tn 1870, the city leased to the institution 
a site at the corner of Lexington avenue and Sixty- 
seventh street for !>!> years, at an annual rental 
of one dollar. Buildings were erected and it was 
authorized to receive state 1 and county pupils. In 1870, 
the Le Couteulx St Mary's school for the deaf was 
opened at Buffalo, and in 1S72 was allowed to receive 
public pupils. In L875, a school for deaf-mutes was 
established at Rome, chiefly at state expense, and, in 
1876, another was opened at Rochester by private 
benevolence. In 1870, also, St Joseph's institution for 
the instruction of deaf-mutes was founded at Fordham 
by a society of Roman Catholic women. All these 
schools were authorized to receive state and county 
pupils. The same year, St Joseph's institute at Ford- 
ham occupied new buildings which it had erected upon 
a farm at Westchester, exclusively for hoys. For the 
school year of 1002-3 there were reported in attendance 
at all the schools for deaf-mutes 1,41)5 pupils, and at 
the schools for the blind, 321. This increase from 204 
of the former and 109 of the latter, since 1854, is due 
not only to the growth of population, but to the removal 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 107 

of age restrictions, and the growing popular interest 
in the education of these unfortunates. In methods of 
instruction, (he New York schools have been among 
the foremost to devise or adopt the best. The Kochester 
school has acquired a national reputation for discard- 
ing all sign language, and depending upon the oral and 
manual methods of expression, together with reading 
and writing. The Department of Public Instruction 
has not usually interfered with the technical methods 
of the different schools, yet it did once enforce a change 
in the New York institution and the present superin- 
tendent has demanded that prominence should be given 
to the teaching of English, with which compliance has 
in every instance been prompt and cordial. Industrial 
education is a part of the work in every school. The 
children are prepared to earn their living, and very 
few of those taught in these institutions become 
paupers. With the increase of population and the 
greater care for the unfortunate, the calls upon the 
institution for tin 1 blind steadily increased, at length 
exceeding its capacity; and, in 1868, a state institution 
was located at Batavia for children north of the 
Harlem river. Appointment to this school was vested 
in local authorities and its special supervision en- 
trusted to the State Board of Charities. Hence, 
although the law imposed upon the superintendent the 
same oversight, as in respect to the other schools for 
defectives, it was not exercised by the superintendent 
until the last year when the inspector of the Depart- 
ment visited the institution and found it in excellent 
condition, its working being substantially along the 
same lines as that of the New York school. 

Previous to 1846, the state made no special provision schools for 
for the education of Indian children. There were a Imlians 
few mission schools and the children were permitted 
to attend the public schools of the towns embracing the 
reservations. The school authorities of these towns 
were also allowed to enumerate the Indian children in 
drawing public money. The schools, being located for 
the convenience of the whites, were accessible to but 
few of the Indians. The injustice of granting public 
money, on the basis of children who could nor reach 
the schools, led to an act in 1846, restricting the 
enumeration of Indian children to those who had 
actually attended school three months in the preceding 



108 Department op Public Instruction 

school year. Another law, enacted in 1846, marks the 
beginning of educational care of the Indians. It pro- 
vides for building schoolhouses and appropriates an 
annual sum for the support of schools for five years on 
four reservations, as follows : Allegany $300, St Regis 
|200, Cattaraugus $350, Onondaga $250. It was con- 
templated that the Indians should contribute both to 
the erection of the buildings and to the support of the 
schools. It is stated that they manifested much 
gratitude for the promised aid. By the census of 1845, 
there were 3,753 Indians in the state, of whom 984 
were between the ages of six and sixteen years. By the 
census of 1900, there were more than 5,000. In 1847, 
a house was built and furnished at St Regis at a cost 
of 1250, and one at Onondaga for $337.50. Schools 
were opened in both, the following year, the one at St 
Regis attaining an. average attendance of 50 out of 
81 children in the district. In 1848, the Indians con- 
tributing $300, a $000 schoolhouse was erected at 
Cattaraugus, and one built by the state on the Allegany 
reservation. The same year $240 was appropriated 
and the town of Southampton, L. I., was required to 
contribute $80 annually for two years, for the support 
of a school for the Shinnecocks. In 1849, this school 
was carried on for six months, with a teacher employed 
at $12 a mouth, and a later report tells of a teacher in 
the same school at $2 a week. In 1855, two schools 
were opened on the Tonawanda reservation and one 
among the Tuscaroras, the Indians contributing liber- 
ally toward the buildings. In 1857, two schools were 
established for the remnant of the Oneidas, who, though 
their lands had been allotted in severalty, were too 
poor to sustain schools of their own. These schools 
were supported until 1889, when they were discontinued 
on recommendation of Superintendent Draper. The 
first schc/ol for the Poospatucks Avas not established 
until 1875. 

The act of 1856 placed the Indian schools under the 
direct charge of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion. The number of districts has gradually increased 
to meet the necessity of accommodating the children. 
In 1866, there were, exclusive of the two for the 
Oneidas, 23 schools each with one teacher. As more 
and more children were brought into the schools, other 
teachers were added at Onondaga, and new districts 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 109 

formed on the other reservations. The latest of these 
districts are the fifth in 1889, and the sixth in 1899, at 
St Regis, the fourth at Tonawanda in 1900, and the 
seventh at Allegany in 1903. The building for the last 
will be completed so as to open a school in the spring 
of 1901. There is also a necessity for two new dis- 
tricts on the St Regis reservation. In the Indian, as 
in the white schools, careful supervision is of the 
utmost importance. At first, the schools were in the 
hands of the state agents and special commissioners 
for building the houses who acted concurrently with 
representative Indians. Later, local superintendents 
were appointed with powers analogous to those of 
boards of education, but subject to the direct approval 
or veto of the State Superintendent by whom they were 
appointed. Some of these local authorities were, from 
the first, intelligent, conscientious men, but others 
studied only their own interests, and " graft " was 
practiced at the expense of the Indians. The present 
local superintendents are all practical educators, 
honest and capable. Their powers, however, have been 
limited by lack of funds and the impossibility of keep- 
ing the central authority in touch with the actual con- 
ditions. The same difficulty was found in dealing with 
other state schools where support was had directly 
from Albany. The Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion therefore, in January, 1900, appointed an inspector 
of normal schools, giving him also charge of the Indian 
schools and schools for defectives. Results of his over- 
sight have been given in the annual reports of the 
Department. He found most, of the Indian school- 
houses out of repair and meanly furnished. Sen is were 
uncomfortable, blackboards, charts, globes and maps 
lacking, and the books entirely unadapted to the wants 
of the children. The grounds were uninviting and the 
outhouses dilapidated and untidy. So rapidly as funds 
would permit these evils have been remedied. Two 
new schoolhouses have been built and three more are 
approaching completion. The out-buildings are clean 
and neat. Charts and kindergarten material have been 
supplied and the old textbooks replaced by modern 
ones. 

As early as 1852, the state appropriated f 1,000 for 
the support of Indian children to be educated at the 
normal schools. They came gladly and made fair 



110 Department of Public Instruction 

progress, but it was reported that they " flocked 
together," and the next year, a similar appropriation 
was made for their education at academies, not more 
than two being allowed at the same institution. In 
1854, another experiment was made appropriating 
$1,000 for the education of Indian youth at farms and 
in country schools. None of these later experiments 
were successful and the state returned to the normal 
school plan, and has most of the time supported one or 
more Indian youths who were taking the regular course 
in these schools preparatory to teaching. Siuce the 
establishment of Government schools for Indians at 
Hampton. Carlisle and Philadelphia they have been 
quite extensively patronized by New York Indians. 
So also have the Quaker boarding school at Tunessasa 
and the Thomas Orphan Asylum near Versailles. A 
few children also at lend the public schools near the 
reservations, or in places where the parents are tem- 
porarily located. There are reported, for the past year, 
in these various schools, aside from the district or state 
schools, 363 pupils. It may be added that many of the 
Indian normal graduates have made excellent teachers 
for their own people. 

The following are the statistical and financial reports 
for the year ending July 31, 1003, the close of the ninth 
year of the present administration : 

Statistical 

Cities Towns State 

Statistics Number of districts 1,043 10,683 11,726 

for tne last Number of teachers employed for 160 (lavs 

year of or more 16 633 15 g 20 34450 

Superin- Number of children of school aire 1.264.431 476.329 1,740,760 

temleiit Number of male teachers em]. loved 1.937 2,972 4,909 

Skinners Number of female teachers employed 2n.7u0 14,216 34.916 

adminii- Number of children in attendance 827.541 429.333 1.256.874 

• ration Average daily attendance 630,855 297,480 9_s.33.". 

Visitations of commissioners 11,815 11,815 

Number of volumes in libraries 719,691 998. 2;0 1,717,951 

Number of log schoolhouses 15 IS 

Number of frame schoolhotises 176 9,553 9,729 

Number of brick schoolhouses S61 997 1,838 

Number of stone schoolhouses 6 290 296 

Whole number of schoolhouses 1,043 10,835 11.878 

Financial 

Receipts Cities Towns State 

Amount on hand August 1, 1902. $17, 334, 554 93 $640,293 54 $17,974,S48 47 

Amount apportioned to districts 1,943.326 60 2,044,730 31 3,938,056 91 
Proceeds of gospel and school 

lands 6,016 60 32.819 19 38.S35 79 

Received from board of regents. 131.760 91 154.9138 63 2S6.679 57 

Raised by tax 23,804.549 87 5,211.37) ■»! 29,075,920 51 

Teachers' board 7.09S 89 7.098 89 

Tuition 44,050 44 186.612 62 230.663 06 

Other sources 7,651.72326 610.678 71 8.262,40197 



Total $50,975,9S2 61 $8,8SS,522 56 $59,864,505 17 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 111 



Tayments Cities Towns State 

For teachers' wages $18,509,203 19 $5,461,963 50 $23,971,166 G9 

Tuition to districts under con- 
tract 38.46175 38,46175 

Transportation to districts un- 
der contract 24,818 84 24,818 84 

Libraries 69,997 00 ns.-'.is us 158,295 08 

For school apparatus 1,133,528 01 61,210 46 1,194,738 47 

For school houses, sites. re- 
pairs, etc 8.926.964 17 984,959 26 9,911,923 43 

Forfeited in supervisors' hands 880 26 880 26 

For free textbooks 115,449 50 115,449 50 

For all other expenditures 4,479,444 62 1,522,917 21 6,002.361 S3 

Amount on hand July 31, 1903... 17,741,396 12 703,013 20 18,446,409 32 



Total $50,975,982 61 $8,888,522 56 $59,864,505 17 



Deducting' from the total under the head of pay- 
ments the amount on hand it appears that the actual 
expense of the common schools of the state for the year 
ending July 31, 1903 was $41,418,095.85. The average 
annual salaries of teachers in the cities, for the last 
school year was $992.08, in the towns $345.26 and in 
the state $695.76; the average weekly salaries in the 
cities was $25.44, in the towns $10.10 and in the state 
$19.65. The average annual cost per pupil, based on 
average daily attendance was, in the cities $52.68, in 
the towns $27.51 and in the state $14.62; the average 
annual cost per pupil, based on number of children 
attending school was in the cities $40.16, in the towns 
$19.06 and in the state $32.95; the average annual cost 
per pupil based on total population, census of 1900, 
was in the cities $6.78, in the towns $3.46 and in the 
state $5.70. The value of schoolhouses and sites was 
in the cities $82,174,215, in the towns $17,491,026 and 
in the state $99,668,241. The total cost of maintain- 
ing the normal schools was $406,675.92, and the average 
cost per graduate of these schools (for 1902) was 
$356.21. The average cost of each graduate from train- 
ing class and school was $68.71. The cost of main- 
taining teachers institutes was $11,416.14, and for each 
teacher in attendance $2.28. The expenses of Indian 
schools were $14,198.78, of schools for defectives $269,- 
154.65, of pictorial instruction $38,000, and of enforcing 
the compulsory education law $15,473.89. The 
teachers' licenses held were state 1,187, college graduate 
751, normal diplomas 7.317, training class or school 
8,459, local and commissioners' 19,867. The average 
length of the school term was in the cities 195 days, 
in the towns 171 and in the state 177. The districts 
observing Arbor day were in the cities 45, and in the 



112 Department of Public Instruction 

towns 9.74X ; the number of trees planted was in the 
cities 729 and in the towns 14,370. The number of 
children committed to truant schools was, in the cities, 
1,260, and in the towns 96; the number of truants 
arrested by attendance officers was in the cities 27,671) 
and in the towns 778 ; the number of parents prosecuted 
was 613 in the cities and 37S in the towns. The total 
number of pupils registered in all departments of nor- 
mal schools (for 1902) was 9,284, the number in normal 
departments only, 4,341, and the number graduating 
was 1 ,046. The number of training classes and schools 
(1903) was 118 j the number attending the same 2,559, 
and the number of certificates issued 1,494. The num- 
ber of teachers institutes was 111 and the number of 
teachers in attendance 8,099. The number of private 
schools in the state was 867, with an attendance of 
188,484. 
ti"™ P s a ta*tis- The tremendous growth, during the existence of the 
ties and Department of Public Instruction is seen in two items 

cuncla- x 

sions alone— in that the schools, in 1853, cost but $2,469,- 

248.52 and $1,931,870.18 were expended for teacher's 
wages, as against $41,418,095.85 and $23,971,166.19 
respectively in 1903. With these latest data of the 
Department, this review nears its end. The history of 
the common schools of New York has been traced from 
their beginning in 1633, in the humble domicile of 
Adam Roelandson, in New Amsterdam to their present 
magnificent development. While, it is believed, that 
nearly every phase of that development has been 
touched upon, if not fully described — with the excep- 
tion of the curriculums to which an expert treatise 
should be devoted — particular stress has been laid upon 
the financial aspects, as they have revealed themselves 
successively, from the slender stipend allotted to the 
first schoolmaster by the Dutch West India Company 
to the two score million dollars and more now expended 
for popular education by this imperial commonwealth ; 
and, as a measure of progress, there is none more 
accurate than that of money. What the schools were 
doing at any given date may be fairly discerned by what 
they were costing. Are the children being gathered in 
the schools; is the number of illiterates decreasing; are 
sightly buildings being erected, and do they improve 
in design, appointments and utility; are teachers re- 
ceiving due compensation ; are they more and more 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 113 

dedicated to their calling; are standards of education 
exalted, and are the facilities the system affords com- 
mensurate with its constantly expending needs? All 
these questions and others that might be asked are 
answered in the statistical and financial tables that the 
superintendents have collated, a considerable number of 
which have here been reproduced, and which record the 
onward course of education as precisely as the ther- 
mometer marks the degrees of temperature. 

In conclusion, it is submitted that the claim of the 
educational supremacy of New York, preferred at the 
outset, has been sustained by the facts adduced. First, 
in population, in manufactures, in commerce, in wealth 
and in the arts of civilization, she is also first in the 
training of her youth for the vocations of life and the 
obligations of citizenship. She founded the common 
school in the land; she unified its government in a 
headship, with powers from and responsibility to her 
alone; she has employed the most effective agencies 
f'or its betterment; if she has not originated all meas- 
ures for its advancement, she has been prompt in 
adopting those elsewhere initiated, enlarging their 
scope and perfecting their application; and she has 
been open-handed in its support until throughout her 
borders, the school bell rings for all her children, with- 
out distinction of sex, color, or condition, her latest 
mandate being that the doors of the high schools shall 
open " without money and without price " to all, who, 
irrespective of their residence within the state, desire 
to enter them. From this review, the commanding 
position which the Department of Public Instruction 
has had in the educational progress of the state is 
clearly apparent. That which has been wrought in this 
regard, within the last fifty years, far exceeds all that 
had been accomplished in the two hundred and twenty 
years preceding. Much of this progress is to be 
ascribed to the larger enlightenment that came with the 
advancing years of the nineteenth century and much 
t'o the abundant means that the state has provided, 
but much also is due to the fact that the common school 
system has been under a separate department of the 
government, invested with large, and even extraordi- 
nary executive, administrative and judicial functions, 
for the exercise of which it has been amenable only 
to the sovereign state. At the close of these fifty 
S 



114 Department op Public Instruction 

memorable years of organization and achievement the 
Department of Public Instruction ceases to exist, but 
it is believed that under the Commissioner of Education 
its jurisdiction will not be restricted nor its powers 
abridged, and that he will be true to its inspiration 
and historic leading. 



VICTOR M. RICE 



Victor Moreau Kice, the first and fourth Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, the son of the Honorable 
William Rice, originally from Washington county, but 
one of the early settlers in Chautauqua, was born at 
Mayville in the latter county, April 5, 1818. Having ob- 
tained his preliminary education in the schools of his 
native town, he entered Allegheny college, at Meadville, 
Pennsylvania, and was graduated from that institution 
in the class of 1841. In 1842, he studied law in May- 
ville, and continued it at intervals, being admitted to 
the bar in 1815. In 1813, he removed to Buffalo and was 
employed as teacher of Latin, language, penmanship, 
and bookkeeping in a private school which subse- 
quently became the Buffalo high school. In 1815, he 
opened an evening commercial school for clerks and 
young men with daily occupat ions. From 1816 to 1818, 
he was the editor of the Cataract afterward the 
Western Temperance Standard, but resumed teach- 
ing in the latter year. In L852, he was elected city 
superintendent of schools. In 1853, he was president 
of the New York teachers' association, with which, for 
several years, he had been prominently identified. In 
1851, he became the first State Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction, and the work of organizing the depart- 
ment devolved upon him. Features of his first 
administration were the creation of the office of school 
commissioner and the compilation of the Code of 
Public Instruction. Returning to Buffalo, he was 
elected, as a Republican to the assembly of 1801, in 
which he was chairman of the committee on college:'., 
academies and common schools. In 18G2, he was 
again elected Superintendent of Public Instruction and 
was reelected in 1865. He was especially interested 
in the establishment of Indian schools, and was form- 
ally adopted by the Seneca tribe and named Sagowada 
(the big tree). The conspicuous achievement of his 




VICTOR M. RICE 

Superintendent 1854-1857, 1862-1868 




HENRY II. VAN DYCK 

Superintendent 1857-1861 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 115 

later service was that of the abolition of the rate bill — 
the making of the common schools of the state abso- 
lutely free. Upon retiring from the superintendency in 
1868, he became president of the American Popular Life 
Insurance Company and was afterward president of 
the Metropolitan Bank of New York City until his 
death which occurred October 18, 1869. 



HENRY H. VAN DYCK 

Henry Herbert Van Dyck, the second Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, was born in Kinderhook, Colum- 
bia county, N. Y., in 1809. He received his education in 
the schools of Kinderhook and, at an early age, was 
apprenticed to the printers' trade, which he acquired 
before he was twenty-one years old. Upon attaining 
his majority, he became the editor of the Goshen 
Independent Republican. He was subsequently one 
of the owners of the Albany Argus. His early politi- 
cal affiliations were with the Free Soil wing of the 
Democratic party. He was prominent in the revolt of 
that element, under the lead of Martin Van Buren, 
in 1848. against the regular nominations of the party, 
which contributed to the election of President Taylor, 
but joined the Republican party upon its organization, 
and was a candidate for presidential elector on the 
Fremont ticket in 1856. He was elected Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction in 1857 and reelected 
in 1860 serving until April 9, 1861, when he resigned 
to accept the appointment of State Superintendent of 
the Banking Department, in which capacity he re- 
mained until August 9, 1865, when he was made assist- 
ant United States Treasurer, in New York, by President 
Johnson. This position he resigned in 1869 on account 
of failing health. His health being restored he became 
president of the American Safe Deposit Company and 
was acting as such at the time of his death January 
22, 1888, at the age of 79 years. He was also for a time 
president of the Erie Transportation Company. In the 
various financial trusts, which he discharged, he was 
highly esteemed and useful. 



116 Department of Public Instruction 



EMERSON W. KEYES 

Emerson W. Keyes, the third Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction, in the eighth generation of the Keyes 
family in America, was born in Jamestown, Chautau- 
qua county, where his father had settled in 1S20, on 
the 80th of June 1828. At the age of 16, he began 
his teaching career in a district school in his native 
county. He was graduated from the Albany normal 
school in 1818, meanwhile supporting himself by teach- 
ing in various places. Immediately after graduation, 
he taught at Castleton-on-the-Hudson and in 1849 he 
taught in the Genesee and Wyoming seminary, Alex- 
ander, N. Y., of which Norman F. Wright, father of 
the present second Deputy Superintendent A. M. 
Wright, was then principal. In 1850 he took charge 
of the department in English in Homer academy. In 
1856, he was engaged in the public schools of New York 
city. In 1857, he was appointed by Superintendent 
Van Dyck, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion and served as such until April 9, 1861, when, 
upon the resignation of Mr. Van Dyck he became acting 
superintendent and filled out the term, retiring in 
April, 1862. He was a candidate for the succession 
in 1862, but was defeated in the caucus of his party 
by a majority of three votes. He was deputy superin- 
tendent under his successful competitor, Victor M. 
Rice, for the ensuing two years. In 1865, he was 
appointed Deputy Superintendent of the Banking 
Department of the state, in which he remained eight 
years, being acting superintendent for several months 
toward the close of the period. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1868, and, upon leaving the Banking Depart- 
ment, practiced his profession in New York, until he 
was, in 1883, appointed chief clerk in the office of the 
Superintendent of Schools in Brooklyn, which position 
he retained until his death, October 17, 1897, at the 
age of 69 years. Mr. Keyes was an author of wide 
repute upon educational, banking and legal subjects, 
and a public speaker upon various themes. Among his 
publications are the " History of Savings Banks in the 
United States," "A Special Report on Savings Banks," 
" The Code of Public Instruction in the State of New 
York," and " Principles of Civil Government, Exempli- 
fied in the State of New York." He also edited 




I§#p fig* 




EMERSON W. KEYES 
Superintendent 1861-1862 




ABRAM B. WEAVER 

Superintendent 1808-1874 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 117 

" Keyes's Court of Appeals Kecord," in four volumes, 
and prepared and revised the article on " Savings 
Banks," in Johnson's Cyclopedia. His last public 
address was that on the occasion of the fiftieth anni- 
versary of the founding of the State normal college 
in Albany, June, 1891. 



ABRAM B. WEAVER 

Abram B. Weaver, the fifth Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, was born in Deerfield, Oneida county, 
which has always been his legal residence, on the 18th 
of December, 1830. He was the son of George M. 
Weaver and Delia Bellinger, both of whom were 
descendants of the German stock which first settled 
the Mohawk valley. His father is reputed to have 
been the first white child born in Oneida county. His 
preliminary education was in the common school of 
his town and in Utica academy, in the latter under a 
most excellent classical teacher, George Spencer. In 
September, 1847, he entered Hamilton college and was 
graduated with the class of 1851. He pursued some 
legal studies in college, under that distinguished in- 
structor, Professor Theodore W. Dwight, and, after 
graduation, resumed his preparation for the bar in the 
office of Spencer and Kernan in Utica. He was ad- 
mitted to the profession in 1853, but was engaged in 
active practice for only a few years. When the present 
system of school supervision was introduced, he was 
appointed school commissioner for the first district of 
Oneida county by the board of supervisors, in 1856, 
and, in the fall of 1857, was elected to the same office, 
by popular vote, for the further term of three years. 
He accepted the nomination of the Democratic party 
for the assembly, in the first district of Oneida county, 
in 1861, and was defeated by the rejection of a few 
clipped ballots, but was returned to that body, the 
ensuing year, and served therein during the sessions 
of 1863, '64 and '65. In the latter year, he was the 
candidate of his party for speaker. He was made a 
trustee of Cornell university in 1865, and assisted in 
organizing that institution, serving until 1874. He 
practiced law in the city of New York from 1865 to 
1868, in partnership with Judge James Matthews and 
was appointed by the court an examiner of candidates 



118 Department op Public Instruction 

for admission to the bar. In 1868, he was elected 
Superintendent of Public Instruction and was re- 
elected in 1871. While superintendent, it devolved 
upon him to organize six of the eight normal schools 
then authorized by law. Since his retirement, he has 
lived on his ancestral home in Deerfleld, frequently, 
however, being requested to accept political preferment. 
He was the candidate of his party for representative 
in congress in 1870, for state senator in 1885, and for 
presidential elector in 1900. In 1902, he was again 
nominated for congress, but declined to make the 
canvass. 



NEIL GILMOUR 



Neil Gilmour, the sixth Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, was born at Paisley, Scotland, on the 18th 
of January, 1810. He was prepared for college in his 
native land, came to this country in 1856 and, enter- 
ing Union college, was graduated from that institution 
with the class of 1860. He worked his way through 
college and for a year after graduation, taught in the 
academy at Corning. He then went to Ballston 
Springs, which was thereafter his home, and taught 
for several years in the academy in that place, of which 
his brother, the Rev. James Gilmour was the principal. 
He early became interested in politics and was in 
frequent demand as a speaker at the meetings of the 
Republican party, with which he was identified. In 
1866, he was elected school commissioner for the first 
district of Saratoga county, and was again elected in 
1872. Before the expiration of his latter term, he was 
chosen Superintendent of Public Instruction and 
resigned as commissioner to accept the higher prefer- 
ment. He was reelected superintendent in 1877 and 
in 1880, being the first superintendent to hold for three 
consecutive terms. Shortly after his retirement and, 
under the administration of President Arthur, he was 
appointed registrar of the land office at Bismarck, 
N. D., and discharged the duties of that office, until 
his resignation upon the incoming of President Cleve- 
land. Returning to Ballston, he accepted the position 
of general manager of the Aetna Life Insurance Com- 
pany for the state of New York and acted as such 
until 1896, after which he engaged in the practice of 



NEIL GILMOUR 

Superintendent 1874-1883 




WILLIAM B. RUGGLES 

Superintendent 1883-1886 



A REVIEW OP ITS ADMINISTRATION 119 

law until his death March 31, 1901. He was an attrac- 
tive public speaker and Mas closely associated with 
the life of his community, being, at the time of his 
death a director of the First National Bank, a trustee 
of the Cemetery Association and also of the Ballston 
Springs Improvement Association. 



WILLIAM B. RUGGLES 

William Benjamin Buggies, the seventh Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction, the son of William and 
Mary Buggies, was born in Bath, Steuben county, May 
11, 1827. He attended the public school in Bath, but 
at the age of thirteen was in a printing office in his 
native village, trying lo work his way up from the 
case to the higher education. In 1816 he entered 
Hamilton college at the beginning of the sophomore 
year, and was graduated with high honors in the class 
of 1819. Soon after graduation he went to Atlanta, 
Georgia, and became the editor and publisher of the 
Atlanta Intelligencer a leading Democratic journal 
of the south. In 1851 he was elected and in 1855 re- 
elected an alderman of the city of Atlanta, and thus 
began his long and varied political career. Disposing 
of his paper, four years before the outbreak of the 
civil war, he came north, and in 1857 began the study 
of law in the school connected with Hamilton col- 
lege, under the direction of Theodore W. Dwight. He 
was admitted to practice in the summer of 185S, contin- 
ued his legal studies in the office of Judge Charles 11. 
Doolittle, in Utica, for about a year, and, in 1859, com- 
menced the practice of his profession in Bath, in which 
he rapidly gained distinction. In 1X07 he was chosen a 
trustee of Bath, and in 1876 and 1877 was a member of 
assembly from Steuben county. In that body he was 
a member of the judiciary committee and was especially 
prominent in the discussion of educational topics, 
taking ground in favor of the abolition of the normal 
schools. 

In 1878 he was appointed first deputy attorney- 
general under the Hon. Augustus Schoonmaker, and 
was continued in the place by the Hon. Hamilton Ward, 
who was not of the same political faith as himself. 
In 1883 he was elected Superintendent of Public 



120 Department of Public Instruction 

Instruction and served nearly through the term, 
resigning, however, January 1, 1886, to accept the posi- 
tion of deputy superintendent and legal counselor of 
the New York State Insurance Department under 
Superintendent Maxwell, and remained in that capac- 
ity until 1891, when he resigned. 

He continued to reside in Albany until his death, 
January 1, 1902. He had published official reports to 
the legislature, opinions under the school laws, and 
addresses delivered before various educational institu- 
tions. He was a delegate to the Democratic National 
Convention at St. Louis in 1876, which nominated 
Samuel J. Tilden for the presidency. 



JAMES E. MORRISON 

James Edward Morrison, the eighth Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, was born in the city of New 
York in 1843 of parents of Irish ancestry. His pre- 
liminary education was obtained in the public schools 
of the metropolis and he was graduated from the col- 
lege of the City of New York in 1861, and from the 
Columbia university law school in 1869. He taught 
in Christ's Church academy at Oyster Bay; in gram- 
mar school 19, New York city and was subse- 
quently and until January, 1879, professor of history 
and belles-lettres in the college of the City of New 
York, when he resigned to become private secretary 
to Mayor Cooper, which position he held for two years. 
He then served a short time as member of the board 
of police commissioners of the City of New York, and, 
in 1882, represented the sixteenth district of New York 
county in the assembly. He served as Deputy State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction under the Hon. 
William B. Ruggles, from April 7, 1883, until January 
1, 1886, when he became State Superintendent, upon the 
resignation of Mr. Ruggles, and acted as such until the 
expiration of the term, April 7, 1886, on which date 
he was appointed Chief Examiner in the State Civil 
Service Commission and continued as such until his 
sudden death in Buffalo, whither he had gone to con- 
duct examinations, June 14, 1887, at the age of 44 
years. A meeting of his friends was held at the 
capitol, in Albany, over which the Hon. Charles R. 
Skinner presided, and suitable resolutions commemora- 




JAMES E. MORRISON 
Superintendent 1886 



ANDREW S. DRAPER 
Superintendent 1886-1892 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 121 

tive of his work were adopted, and a committee was 
appointed to attend his funeral. In addition to his 
political and educational preferments, Mr. Morrison 
was known as an orator and writer upon various 
subjects and as a scholar of more than ordinary 
attainments. He was highly esteemed in the Masonic 
Fraternity and for a time, was at the head of the New 
York Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. He con- 
tributed to the press many articles and editorials on 
Masonic Law, in which he was regarded an authority. 
He was a member of the Democratic State Committee 
for many years and was reading clerk of the Demo- 
cratic National Conventions of 1880 and 1884. 



ANDREW S. DRAPER 

Andrew Sloan Draper, of Puritan and Scotch-Irish 
lineage, the son of Sylvester Bigelow and Jane Sloan 
Draper, was born in Westford, Otsego county, N. Y., 
June 21, 1848. When seven years old, the family 
moved to Albany. His early education was in the 
common schools of Westford and Albany. He entered 
the Albany academy in 18G3 and was graduated there- 
from in 18GG. The year after graduation, he was a 
teacher of mathematics, bookkeeping, etc., in the West- 
ford Literary Institute. In the winter of 1867-68 he 
taught mathematics in the Albany academy, and, the 
next year was principal of the graded school in East 
Worcester, Otsego county. He was engaged for four 
summers in the Albany office of C. & D. Whitney, 
a large lumber firm, and traveled extensively for it 
through the Atlantic coast states. This was followed 
by a course of study in the Albany Law School (Union 
university) from which he received the degree of LL.B. 
and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He formed a 
partnership with his cousin, Alden Chester, now a jus- 
tice of the New York Supreme Court, the firm becom- 
ing later Paddock, Draper and Chester, and again 
Draper and Chester. He was also deeply interested in 
politics, having begun to make Republican speeches ns 
early as 1868. In 1876 he was president of a uni- 
formed political club of 600 members called th* 
" Minute Men," from 1880 until 1883 president of th« 
Albany Grant club of 3,000 members and was ire 
quently a delegate to local and state conventions of his 



122 Department of Public Instruction 

party. In 1880 he became a member of the Albany 
county Republican committee and was its chairman for 
three years. In 1883 he was elected to the Republican 
state committee and was the chairman of its executive 
committee in 1S84, and was also a delegate to the 
Republican National Convention of 1884. In 1878, he 
was chosen a member of the Albany board of educa- 
tion and served therein for three years, and was for 
a time a trustee of the State normal college. He was 
a member of the New York assembly in 1881, serving 
on the committees of Ways and Means, Judiciary, Pub- 
lic Printing and Public Education. In 1884, he was ap- 
pointed by President Arthur a member of the court 
of Alabama claims — a court to hear and determine the 
individual claims against the $15,500,000 awarded by 
the High Tribunal at Geneva under the treaty of Wash- 
ington with Great Britain. He was elected State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction in 18S6 and was 
reelected in 1889. During his tenure he accomplished 
a number of educational reforms and had national 
reputation as an educator. He was superintendent of 
instruction in Cleveland, Ohio, 1802-94, and has been 
president of the University of Illinois since 1894. The 
University advanced from a faculty of 90 and a student 
body of 750 in 1894 to a faculty of 420 and a student 
body of 3,800 in 1904. In March, 1S9S, he was elected 
superintendent of schools of the Greater City of New 
York, but declined the position. In 1904, he was 
elected commissioner of education for the State of New 
York, entering upon his duties April 1. He was 
awarded the silver medal at the Paris Exposition for 
his monograph on the " Organization and Administra- 
tion of the American School System," and is the author 
of a book on the war with Spain, entitled " The Rescue 
of Cuba.' 5 He received the degree of LL.D. from 
Colgate in 1889 and from Columbia in 1903. He is 
widely known as a speaker and writer, especially upon 
educational topics. 




JAMES F. CROOKER 
Superintendent 1 892-1 895 



A REVIEW OF ITS ADMINISTRATION 123 

JAMES F. CROOKER 
James F. Crooker, the tenth Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction, was born in the hamlet of Christian 
Hollow, in the town of Onondaga, in the county of 
the same name, August 12, 1834. He is of New Eng- 
land origin, his family being among the settlers of 
Stratford, Conn. His father was a farmer, nearly all 
his life, dying at a good old age in 1890. His mother's 
maiden name was Elizabeth Yates, a descendant of 
Governor Joseph C. Yates, of this state. She died in 
L838. In 1830, the parents of James F. Crooker re- 
moved to Erie county, where nearly all his life has 
been passed. His early education was acquired in the 
schools of his neighborhood and, at the age of sixteen, 
he taught a district school in the same vicinity. He 
subsequently studied in the Springville academy, from 
which he was graduated in 1853. He then accepted 
a position in a mercantile house in New York city, 
which he was compelled by ill health to resign, after 
a service of about three years. He returned to Erie 
county and, after recuperating his health at the pater- 
nal homestead, became the principal of one of the 
smaller schools of Buffalo and as the principal of 
a number of the schools in that city remained a teacher 
for about twenty years. In the fall of 1881, and while 
principal of No. 31, the largest school in the city, he 
was elected superintendent of education of Buffalo for 
a term of two years, and was reelected four time3, 
more than once receiving majorities considerably in 
f excess of other candidates upon the same ticket — the 
Democratic. In the eleventh year of his local super- 
intendency he was chosen by the legislature State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, in February, 
1892, and served until the end of the term in April, 
1895. Since retiring from the superintendency, he has 
filled a number of local offices in Buffalo, and was once 
the candidate of his party for the city superintendency 
of schools. 



CHARLES R. SKINNER 

Charles Rufus Skinner, the eleventh Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, son of Avery and Charlotte 
Stcbbins Skinner, was born in Union Square, Oswego 
county, August 4, 1844. He was educated in the com- 



1.24 Department op Public Instruction 

nion schools of his native town, the Mexico academy 
and the Clinton Liberal Institute. From 18G7 until 
1870, he was engaged in business in New York city. 
He then settled in Watertown, Jefferson county, and 
from 1870 until 1874 was the business manager of the 
Watertown Daily Times. He was elected, as a Kepub- 
lican, to the assembly of the state of New York, for 
the years 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880 and 1881 ; was a mem- 
ber of several important committees and frequently 
participated in the debates of that body. In 1881, the 
Honorable Warner Miller having resigned his seat in 
the house of representatives, upon being chosen a 
United States senator, Mr. Skinner was elected to fill 
the vacancy thus created in the forty-seventh congress, 
and was reelected to the forty-eighth, in 1883. In 1886, 
he was appointed by the Honorable Andrew S. Draper 
Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
and served as such until 1892; in that year he became 
supervisor of teachers' institutes and teachers' training 
classes, under Superintendent Crooker; in 1S95, he was 
chosen by the legislature State Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction and was reelected to the same office in 
1898 and 1901. He was president of the National 
Educational Association in 1896. He has delivered 
many addresses at political, patriotic and educational 
gatherings and is the author of " Commercial Advant- 
ages of Watertown, N. Y." (1876) ; New York Ques- 
tion Book" (1S90) ; "Arbor Day Manual" (1891) and 
" Manual for Patriotism for the Schools of New York " 
(1900) . He received the degree of Master of Arts from 
Hamilton college in 1889, that of Doctor of Laws from 
Colgate university in 1895, and that of Doctor of 
Letters from Tufts college, Massachusetts,, in 1901. 




CHARLES R. SKINNER 
Superintendent 1895 1904 



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